Plein air painting is painting outside, and it is part of the program on offer for kids at the North Vancouver Community Arts Council this summer.
The council's summer camps are held at Maplewood House in North Vancouver, and a new feature this year is use of an outdoor green space at the location. Claire Halpern, the council's programs and communications coordinator, says a lot of the summer camp art and theatre activities will take place in the outdoor space.
"It's going to be really fun," she says, noting one of the classes will focus on drawing and painting outdoors, including drawing trees, insects and other things campers might see outside. Also new this year is a movement camp called Act, Move and Sing, which will culminate in a group musical performance with dancing and singing. From Design to Stage is a similar
class that won't feature as much singing and dancing, and will end with a small-scale performance. Small class sizes allow kids of different creative ability to participate, explains Halpern, adding the focus of the programs is exploring the creative process and is not particularly results oriented.
"It's for anyone who just wants to have fun and be a bit creative," she says. She describes the morning programs as more "sit-down fine arts" and the afternoon programs as more "run around and be creative."
Kids enjoy art because they love working on and completing projects, and it's a different way of learning, notes Halpern. "They get to touch gooey things and make a mess and they're allowed to get dirty," she says, adding it also helps kids learn to use their imaginations and "they get to choose where that leads them."
