Summer Camps at the Intersection of Art & Nature 2024

Lynden’s art and nature camps for children aged 4 to 15 years integrate our collection of monumental outdoor sculpture and temporary installations with the natural ecology of our hidden landscapes and unique habitats. Led by artists, naturalists, and art educators, the camps explore the intersection of art and nature through collaborative inquiry and hands-on artmaking, using all of Lynden's 40 acres to create a joyful, all-senses-engaged outdoor experience.

Camps are organized around themes that investigate our relationship to nature and enable us to learn through making. Each camp introduces a range of imaginative experiences, materials, and tools. Working on projects individually and as a team, we'll be recording our discoveries in prints, collages, and sculptures. Whether we are watching chickens hatch or building rafts to explore the ponds, digging in the vegetable garden or carving with handmade knives, our focus is on cultivating creativity and an appreciation of process.

Join us for a summer of art and nature!

Become a member at the family level today to receive a 20% discount on camp fees (you may also add a membership during the camp registration process).

To preview a PDF of the registration form, click here. Please note: Space in each camp is limited and we anticipate they will fill quickly. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration does not guarantee admission. Once we receive your completed registration form, we will follow up via e-mail with an invoice for payment and a confirmation after payment is received OR a notification that you have been placed on the waiting list for the camp(s) you have requested. Click here to register online.


Questions?
Jeremy Stepien, Director of Education
414-446-8481
jstepien@lyndensculpturegarden.org


2024 CAMPS AT A GLANCE
Camps in red are full. To be added to the wait list, please fill out a registration form. Registration closes the Wednesday prior to the first day of each camp.

Dates Time Camp Ages
June 17-21 9 am-4 pm Metamorphosis, Growth, Change 6-11
July 1-3 9 am-12 pm Garden Animals 4-6
July 1-3 1:30-4:30 pm Garden Animals 4-6
July 8-12 9 am-4 pm Shared Spaces 6-11
July 15-19 9 am-4 pm Pond Voyage 6-11
July 22-26 9 am-4 pm Wonder, Wander, Move 6-11
August 5-9 9 am-4 pm Whittlers 10-15
August 12-16 9 am-4 pm Forage 6-11
August 19-21 9 am-12 pm Nature's Kitchen 4-6
August 19-21 1:30-4:30 pm Nature's Kitchen 4-6

FOR THE YOUNG & VERY YOUNG

Tuesdays in the Garden is designed for children aged 1-3 and their caregivers. It provides an opportunity for those with very small children to engage in outdoor play and the manipulation of art materials.


Garden Animals | 3 Mornings

July 1-3 | 9 am-12 pm
Ages 4-6
$108/$86 members

What animals live at Lynden and where can we find them? We will seek out the local animals-- monarch butterflies, toads, frogs, turtles--explore their habitats, and gather inspiration from our collection of animal sculptures to create artworks based on your own favorite animals—real and imaginary. Guest Artist Julio Pabón will show us how to dance Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines dance, martial arts, and music.


Garden Animals | 3 Afternoons

July 1-3 | 1:30-4:30 pm
Ages 4-6
$108/$86 members

What animals live at Lynden and where can we find them? We will seek out the local animals-- monarch butterflies, toads, frogs, turtles--explore their habitats, and gather inspiration from our collection of animal sculptures to create artworks based on your own favorite animals—real and imaginary. Guest Artist Julio Pabón will show us how to dance Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines dance, martial arts, and music.


Nature's Kitchen | 3 Mornings

August 19-21 | 9 am-12 pm
Ages 4-6
$108/$86 members

Where does food come from? What does it taste, smell, and feel like? Spend time in Lynden’s vegetable garden: prepare mud pies, stone soups, and flower salads for Lynden’s animals in the playscape “kitchen,” and harvest herbs and vegetables from the garden for our bonfire, where we will bake a delicious treat. Guest artist Julio Pabón will join us for music making during our garden party.


Nature's Kitchen | 3 Afternoons

August 19-21 | 1:30-4:30 pm
Ages 4-6
$108/$86 members

Where does food come from? What does it taste, smell, and feel like? Spend time in Lynden’s vegetable garden: prepare mud pies, stone soups, and flower salads for Lynden’s animals in the playscape “kitchen,” and harvest herbs and vegetables from the garden for our bonfire, where we will bake a delicious treat. Guest artist Julio Pabón will join us for music making during our garden party.

FULL-DAY CAMPS FOR CHILDREN AGED 6-11


Metamorphosis, Growth, Change | 5 Days

June 17-21 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$420/$336 members

The dynamics of the natural world ensure that Lynden's landscape is in constant flux. We can track change within this environment by exploring differences in scale, texture, shape, and form. Whether observing an ecosystem up close or hiking through Lynden's fields, whether viewing plants through a microscope, hatching chickens or raising butterflies in the pollinator garden, we will seek out change and use clay, watercolor, pressure printing, and paper pulp to interpret our discoveries.


Shared Spaces | 5 Days

July 8-12 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$420/$336 members

At Lynden, we cultivate relationships among people, cultures, and the natural world. What can nature teach us when we observe closely and interact with care? How can our experiences and actions create a sense of belonging? We’ll visit Lynden’s cultural garden to explore our relationship with plants; design ceramic receptacles for kusamono (the small, potted grass gardens displayed next to bonsai) after a drawing touring of the Bonsai Exhibit; and follow artist-in-residence Jenna Knapp into the labyrinth to consider our entanglement with the natural world.


Pond Voyage | 5 Days

July 15-19 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$420/$336 members

For aquatic insects, understanding buoyancy, surface tension, and propulsion is key to survival. We will adapt this knowledge as we construct floating sculptures, prototypes for the full-sized rafts that will carry us across the pond at the end of the week. We’ll visit the different ponds at Lynden, recording our experiences in pond journals as we go, and learn batik-dyeing to make colorful bandanas and nautical flags that will adorn our rafts and ourselves.


Wonder, Wander, Move | 5 Days

July 22-26 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$420/$336 members

From playful strides to energetic sprints, we will experiment with different approaches to one of our most common daily activities: walking. Investigations of movement--of humans, animals, and insects--will inspire games, excursions, and hands-on projects. Artist-in-residence Sarah Luther’s “walking algorithms” and a guest artist from Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group will prompt pedestrian adventures, while in the studio we’ll make floating ink paintings, flipbook animations, and found-object sculptures that capture movement and place.


Forage | 5 Days

August 12-16 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$420/$336 members

Foraging helps us discover the reciprocal relationship between ourselves and other living things. Using materials collected from the garden, we will expand the boundaries of what and where art can be. We will practice honorable harvesting to collect wild edibles to make our own teas and then design ceramic canisters to hold them. Outside, we’ll sculpt locally dug clay, make willow charcoal pencils in a campfire, and create installations in the wild.

FOR OLDER CHILDREN UP TO AGE 15


Whittlers: Wood Culture | 5 Days

August 5-9 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 10-15
$468/$374 members

There is a unique pleasure in working sustainable natural materials with simple hand tools, a pleasure shared by whittlers everywhere. We will use rasps and files to shape hardwood handles for our own fixed-blade carving knives and then head to Lynden’s back acres to learn green wood carving techniques. Along the way we’ll discover how Lynden’s artists and land managers cultivate sustainable interactions with trees. You'll walk away with several projects that can be assembled into a unique carving tool kit, and with new skills that will enable you to continue your whittling adventures at home. Returning whittlers welcome.

Registration, Fees & Policies

Registration
To preview a PDF of the registration form, click
here. Please note: Space in each camp is limited and we anticipate they will fill quickly. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration does not guarantee admission. Once we receive your completed registration form, we will follow up via e-mail with an invoice for payment and a confirmation after payment is received OR a notification that you have been placed on the waiting list for the camp(s) you have requested. Click here to register online.

Fees
Camp fees include supplies. Save 20% on registration by becoming a Lynden Sculpture Garden member at the family level.

Scholarships
Lynden is committed to making its programs available to all. Full and partial need-based scholarships are available. To apply, please submit your registration form and contact Jeremy Stepien at (414) 446-8481 or jstepien@lyndensculpturegarden.org for a scholarship application.

Refund Policy
There is a $35 administrative fee for all refunds issued up to 14 days prior to the first day of a camp. No refunds are made after that period.

Cancellation Policy
If a camp is cancelled due to low enrollment (this will be determined 14 days prior to the first day of a camp), your registration fee will be refunded in full.

Safety Modifications
To view our current guidelines for in-person programs, which will be updated as summer approaches, click here.


©2024 Lynden Sculpture Garden