Art Smart Program

My son loved attending Art Smart Camp program. They did many creative things from painting, pottery to cooking. He can’t wait to be back!

Our daughter attended a one week session at the Art Smart Program this summer. As she is only five years old, our expectations were mostly that she got to do something creative and fun. This program far surpassed our expectations and my daughter absolutely loved her week there.
She completed a great number of projects and worked with a number of different mediums. The first day, she drew a portrait of Albert Einstein based on a photo. She worked with charcoal for the first time ever, and learned about using shadow to create depth. Another day she learned about vanishing points and drew an amazing street scene. She worked with clay sculpture, did boutique and tie-​dye, made jewelry, learned how to blend and layer colors with watercolor painting, did a Warhol style self portrait, made a dream catcher, and made a doll of Anna from the Frozen movie. The studio extends outdoor also. They have built an outdoor nature studio in the woods where the kids spend some time each day. Here they incorporate natural elements into their creations, and my daughter made a beautiful fairy house out of ‘found’ elements such as moss, tree bark and small stones.
This was all in five days and with all of that, they still found time to have snacks and lunch and to teach the kids some fun board games. The teachers were very good at letting us know how each day went.
I think there were a couple of areas that could be improved.
One day we forgot to send a bottle of water with my daughter. Our mistake. But it was not realized until after lunch and the meantime, she went thirsty all day. We would have liked the school to be a little more proactive, especially with young kids.
The school’s web site claims to offer early and late hours. I inquired about this. Donna, the owner, told me she would be there every day at 8am and that we could drop off then at no extra expense, so long as my daughter could do a quiet activity while she did setup. While that was very generous and helpful to us, the reality was that many days the first teacher did not arrive until well after 8am. We would have preferred that they setup some well defined ranges of before/​after hours time. We would have gladly paid additionally for an early hour and not had the disruption to our work schedules.
Overall though, we were very pleased with the camp, and my daughter is looking forward to attending again in the future!