Summer Camps at the Intersection of Art & Nature 2023

July 5-7 | 9 am-12 pm
Ages 4-6
$108/$86 members
Step through the hidden veil that separates our world from a magical world where gnomes, fairies, and sprites live. We will create miniature environments for these creatures out of pebbles, twigs, mosses, and feathers gathered from the garden. Through hands-on art projects and nature-related explorations, we will learn to honor and respect every living thing around us, just like these magical guardians of nature.

July 10-14 | 9 am-12 pm
Ages 4-6
$180/$144 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.

August 21-23 | 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.

August 21-23 | 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.

June 19-23 | 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.

July 10-14 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$420/$336 members
Foraging helps us discover the reciprocal relationship between ourselves and other living things. Using collected materials from the garden as our primary source materials, we will expand the boundaries of what and where art can be. We will practice honorable harvesting to collect wild edibles to make tea with Lynden artist-in-residence Angela Kingsawan, and in the studio we’ll make ceramic canisters to hold these teas. Outside, we’ll sculpt locally dug clay, make willow charcoal pencils in a campfire, and create installations in the wild.

July 17-21 | 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.

July 24-28 | 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, make Kokedama after touring the Bonsai exhibit, create beads from local clay and sumac for a bead exchange, and harvest vegetables to invent recipes for a campfire barbecue.

August 14-18 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$420/$336 members
Many of the animals, birds, and insects at Lynden rely on our wooded areas for food and shelter. Examining the structures and characteristics of Lynden's natural spaces, we will build tree forts inspired by animal shelters, cast nets into the pond to collect aquarium materials and, in the studio, design ceramic insect shelters to observe the residents in our own backyards.

FOR OLDER CHILDREN UP TO AGE 15

August 7-11 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 10-15
$448/$364 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.