Crafts N Things

Lillstreet offers more than arts and crafts

Summer art classes and camps today cover a whole lot more than drawing, painting and sculpting. While those traditional forms are part of the agenda, offerings run the gamut from claymation to moviemaking to creating an installation as part of the Summer Kidstreet programming at Lillstreet Art Center, 4401 N. Ravenswood.

“Probably the most unique camp we’re offering this year that’s completely different than anything we’ve done before … [is the] installation camp. They’ll be setting up installations, coming up with an idea, creating an installation project within the space of the building,” said Melanie Brown, director of the children’s program. “It’s going to be really interesting to see what happens.”

For kids ages 10 to 14, Installation Art: Nature vs. Technology runs Aug. 1 to 5 and costs $220.

Collaboration is a big part of Lillstreet’s philosophy. Experienced or not, all Lillstreet students get the opportunity to express themselves their own way, Brown said.

“We are really committed to the children having a very creative experience so we encourage a child to have a project that is unique from the rest of the children,” she said. “It’s not a craft . . . we don’t show them steps to get to our idea of their result. They’re coming up with their own plan on a theme that we give them and the materials that we give them.

“Whenever I teach I feel like I’m more of a collaborator,” Brown continued. “I’m teaching them skills and I’m teaching them how to use the materials and giving them ideas of ways to put things together, but really we’re all exploring the materials and [seeing] where they go with the project. It’s more interesting to us than coming up with some perfect preconceived result.”

Among Lillstreet’s other unique offerings are a moviemaking camp (ages 10-14, June 27-July 1 or Aug. 29-Sept. 2; $295) and a claymation camp (ages 10-14, July 11-15 or July 25-29; $295).

In the moviemaking camp students “actually create and film and produce a movie in a week. So they will each be assigned their job and it will be a student-done movie at the end,” Brown said.

For claymation, students will be “using modeling clay and multimedia materials . . . so they’ll make little claymation videos by the end of the week,” she said.

August Crafts 'n Things - inspireME

A perfect use of our new Let's Celebrate Collection, Emma created a festive birthday layout. You can easily recreate this look too! With several sheets of our paper and a pair of scissors, you can have a perfect birthday layout in no time!

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Make sure to take a peek at the design team's projects using our NEW Let's Celebrate line!

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