The Coleman Center for the Arts was pleased to offer Camp COLOR, an annual summer camp for area youth ages 8 to 18. Boldness, creativity, energy, and collaborative fun served as inspiration for this year’s theme. Instructors offered lessons and projects in visual art, performance, dance, and creative writing. The week wrapped up on Saturday evening with an imaginative and colorful camp celebration, including a performance and gallery show.
Darius Hill used his own work as a starting point to ask students to consider symbolism and their own experiences to create paintings on paper and installations with natural materials. Students painted bundled sticks and twine, choosing colors that related to their own identities and experiences. These bundles were then arranged into a collaborative sculptural installation in the CCA gallery. Students also created individual paintings using colors and arrows as symbolic imagery and a jumping off point to think about their own past and future. To explore these ideas in another context, older students used chalk and painter’s tape to create a temporary outdoor installation on the exterior wall of the CCA.
New instructor and Birmingham poet John Paul Taylor used the poem “The Truth” by Ted Joans as an introduction and structure to teach students about poetry and performance. Students spent the remainder of the week investigating ideas of color, symbolism, and identity while writing poems to accompany the opening line, “My Black is Beautiful.” As they prepared their poems and performance, the older students found inspiration in classroom tools (markers, pencils, etc) and created a beat to accompany their work. Younger students used the “The Truth” to bookend the original words they shared with their friends and families in the final camp celebration.
Sumter county natives and textile artists Lillie Mack and Jo Hare used their combined talents and experience to lead students in creating t-shirts, bags, picture frames, and wall banners. Items were colorfully and uniquely designed by each student and reflected their individual styles and bold creativity. Lillie, Jo, and the students also secretly designed and decorated a quilted wall hanging dedicated to the CCA and presented at the camp celebration.
Returning dance instructor Terry Hayes taught younger students a specially choreographed, and fantastically theatrical, routine to the Justin Beiber hit “Sorry.” While older students learned steps to their own mix of Rihanna’s “Work.” Singing instructor Kanita Sturdivant went old school this year, teaching the students “Everyday People” by Sly and the Family Stone, “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers, and “Color is a Beautiful Thing” by Nina Simone. The students presented their pieces during the final camp celebration to an enthusiastic crowd of family, friends, and community members. A good time was had by all.
Camp COLOR was made possible by the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Thanks to Sheleda and Shequila Johnson for serving as Camp Counselors!