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Creative flair
Published 11:37am Thursday, June 7, 2012Radney Elementary hosts 10th annual Kitty Dark Kids Art Camp
By Alison McFerrin, Staff Writer
One annual summer program has fun and games down to an art.
In its tenth year, Kitty Dark Kids Art Camp drew 85 children this year for its weeklong program, running from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Radney Elementary School this week.
“I think that it’s a very nice camp,” said Barbara Simpson, who is teaching mixed media at the camp for the first time. “I love the way they do it. They have a lot of different projects for the kids.”
In addition to mixed media—using a variety of materials to create a single project—camp participants also learn to dance in creative movement, hone their acting skills in drama and create hand-drawn or hand-painted masterpieces in drawing and painting.
“I have lots of friends at art camp,” said Morgan Phillips, 6. “It’s fun.”
A little creative fun is the goal of camp, and teen volunteer Madison Champion said that’s something not all children can get anywhere else.
“They get to get dirty,” said Champion, who is volunteering for her third year. “They get paint on them, and they love it … Parents, they don’t always want their kids panting in the living room floor, so we kind of give them an outlet.”
Kitty Dark Kids Art Camp began in 2002 in honor and memory of Kitty Dark, an Alexander City artist, as an outgrowth of an idea from the Sarah Carlisle Towery Art Colony.
Art colony members wanted to do the camp as a service to the community. That was when the Dark Family Partnership stepped up.
“Her family wanted to honor her in some way, and so they became sponsors of the kids’ art camp,” said Jamie Dark, camp director.
Dark has been directing the program the last nine years, and she said the children love the opportunity it gives them to be actively creative. “It gives them a sense of freedom with their creativity,” Dark said. “They can be themselves here. They can create in any way that they like.”
Simpson said the camp allows children to explore their creativity in ways that aren’t always possible at school.
“They’re allowed to release their creativity rather than to stifle it,” Simpson said. “You’re not allowed to think outside the box in math. You’re not allowed to think outside the box in most history or science … With art you get to really get to … release your inner feelings.”
By Alison McFerrin, Staff Writer
One project for this year’s camp is a large mural in the lunchroom at Radney Elementary School. Each participant is helping to paint it, and the finished product will remain a permanent part of the school’s décor.
Kitty Dark Kids Art Camp takes place each year the first full week of June. For $125 children get all their supplies, lunch and snack each day and a T-shirt. For more information, contact Dark at 252-329-9816 or jamiewdark@yahoo.com. New sponsor Radney Elementary School will continue to serve as the location of the camp.
