The Creative Expression Studio: Summer Camps
Where preteens create freely, express fully, and leave feeling like themselves
This is not your typical art camp. Big things are happening inside preteens, hormonally, emotionally, and socially. They’re figuring out who they are, navigating friendships, and growing up in a world that never slows down, and sometimes talking about it is just too hard. I help preteens find tools to process big emotions through creative expression, a way to say something without words. But we also just have fun, because the whole point is to make art feel exciting again, not intimidating. It’s not about being perfect or being an artist. That belief is exactly what stops most kids from creating at all. The focus is always process over perfection.
Each day, campers explore new techniques and then choose whether to bring it into a layered journal page or a release for whatever they’re feeling that day. The next morning, after some grounding, we reflect on the day before with optional sharing. Along the way, they discover their own creative instincts and build real connection with each other in a small, home-like studio space.
The tools they learn here don’t stay in the studio. These are simple, intuitive exercises they can return to on their own whenever things feel like too much. Every camper gets their own art journal to use all week and take home at the end.
Each week includes a bonus take-home craft project, and ends with a field trip to the Phoenix Art Museum, where campers discover that what they made belongs in the world of art too.
ESA/ClassWallet approved.
