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Welcome to Carlsbad Art Farm, winner of this year’s Red Tricycle Award for “Most Awesome Camp for Kids”.

Online registration for the 2013 Carlsbad Art Farm’s Summer Camp Season begins March 1. For a preview of our 2013 session dates click here or go to our Registration Page. There are nine sessions to choose from. Camps for elementary and middle school students sold-out early last year, so we recommend registering early.

 

Carlsbad Art Farm in Sunny Creek, San Diego has been educating kids since 2006 with a summer day camp and year round enrichment classes. The instructors work with children from grades two through eight, allowing their imagination to flourish with them as they grow.

The farm provides your child with art instruction and natural science. The instructions and programs take place on the farm, where the children are surrounded by alpacas, dwarf goats, mini mules, chickens, and dogs. There is even a Mediterranean spotted donkey on the farm!

The animals also act as models for your children to observe and sketch. Children quickly bond with the animals while learning to hold them and care for them. As they draw, they learn the anatomy of animals and have a wonderful experience during. Think of it as sneaking vegetables into a tasty meal; the kids have such a great time that they don’t realize they’re learning!

Carlsbad Art Farm also offers age-appropriate workshops at the art camp; these are guaranteed fun for all age levels.

What’s an Art Farm?

Carlsbad Art Farm offers a summer camp that’s unlike any other in Southern California. Here, students at the elementary and middle school levels will learn the basics of drawing and painting in an outdoor workshop setting. In age-appropriate classes, they’ll learn about line, form and texture, and how all the elements come together in representational art. With the help of highly skilled instructors, they’ll learn how to use traditional studio arts media such as watercolor, acrylic and charcoal.

And the models they use are the Art Farm’s resident animals, including alpacas, Nigerian dwarf goats, mini-mule, a Mediterranean spotted donkey, chickens, farm dogs, and visiting animal models.

Who is it for?

Art Farm’s summer day camp is open to grades 2 through 8, with students divided into three groups each week, depending on age, with separate instructors for each group. Classes are kept small so that kids receive as much one-on-one instruction as possible. For middle school students who want to make the leap from drawing live animals into character development, there is no other program like this locally (the secret is in learning something about animal anatomy).

All students rotate through two art classes and a science enrichment class daily; day camp is held five days a week, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m., with a lunch break.

Classes are held outdoors in Art Farm’s beautiful woodland setting, encouraging students to be inspired by the natural world around them. They’ll not only sketch animals in the art classes, but also learn to take care of them. Students delight in walking the alpacas to the creek, holding the friendly chickens, and feeding the goats.

What else does it offer?

In the natural science class, kids discover the riparian habitat of Sunny Creek, which runs through the Art Farm property, where they’ll see herons and egrets, salamanders and frogs, and other native wildlife. They’ll take water samples, learn to identify animals and plants, and also find out how all the pieces of the puzzle come together to create a healthy environment.

There’s also structured free time during the day as well. Older students are allowed greater freedom to pursue an independent craft or art project, explore the terrain, or help with animal handling and maintenance, while younger children will delight in Art Farm traditions such as building a creekside fairy and gnome village (sometimes the fairies will reward them with small gifts).

Art Farm Owner/Director Perrin Weston Coman trained in the studio art method at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco and grew up on a farm in northern California in the 1970s. As a child, she spent her summer days drawing and painting her animals in a vast orchard where she was free to roam and explore with her friends. Her goal with Art Farm is to open up that world of exploration she experienced as a child to local youth in a meaningful way, which is why each summer, for nine weeks, the Comans open up their private 10-acres woodland preserve to local youth for a summer camp experience like no other. We guarantee that after the first day at Art Farm summer camp, your child will leave happy, exhausted, challenged by what they’ve learned, in love with our wonderful animals, and eager to return the next day.

Testimonials from Summer Camp 2011:

• “My girls, art and animals all go hand in hand so this was an easy decision for me. The camp is well run and Perrin is very accommodating and professional. FANTASTIC CAMP EXPERIENCE!”
• “This was a fantastic experience for my kids, ages 11 and 12. There was a wonderful freedom with the art, the counselors, the animals and the space. My daughter loved the chickens and they did an amazing natural sculpture of the newly shaved alpacas. Triple thumbs up!”
• “My 10-year-old son said it was the best camp ever and wants to go back again this summer. If you are looking for an old-fashioned summer camp with a great art theme this is it!”
• “Our granddaughter, age 11, absolutely loved it. Having animals as models for the drawing classes was an amazing plus.”
• “This is the most amazing spot and amazing camp for any child. I wanted so badly to stay and do the art with them! My daughter says it is incredible!”
• “Carlsbad Art Farm is a diamond!”
• “Beautiful setting, amazing instructors! My son (who is not all that artistic and doesn’t particularly love animals!) LOVES this camp.”
• “Awesome place for kids to learn and play. My daughter loved it. Given a choice between the Art Farm and other camps, she would pick the Art Farm in a heartbeat. Exceeded expectations.”
• “What a wonderful experience for my granddaughter—a city girl on a farm, with art instruction, too!”
• “Carlsbad Art Farm offers a camp experience unlike any other in the North County. My daughter comes home from camp each day with beautiful artwork and stories of amusing animals and adventures in nature. We will definitely come back for classes in the fall and camp next summer.”
• “AMAZING! What a treasure of a place and a staff my daughter adored.”
• “Carlsbad Art Farm is fabulous! My son had a wonderful experience, and it is a special place. I am so glad I learned about it. Thanks.”
• “Only the first day of camp and my daughter didn’t want to leave. She talked about her day all afternoon. We will be making this a summer day camp tradition.”
• “Today was first day of camp, and my son was so excited. He had a great time, met new friends, and is very excited to go back tomorrow. Fantastic!!”
• “My son just spent his first day of summer camp at Carlsbad Art Farm and LOVED it! When I came to pick him up I got to experience the beautiful nature setting with lots of animals and creativity in a wonderful environment. Carlsbad Art Farm is AMAZING!”