Summer Camp
Welcome to Carlsbad Art Farm Summer Day Camp, a Nickelodeon Parents’ Pick Award Nominee in 2010. Art Farm has been featured in Carlsbad Magazine, Ranch & Coast Magazine, and Coast News. Many local schools and youth-centered organizations know us through our donations to their annual fund-raising auctions. And, of course, many elementary and middle school students and their parents, scouting troops, and students on school field outings know about Art Farm from attending past camps, classes, and field trips.
We know of nowhere else in San Diego County, or anywhere else for that matter, that combines great outdoor art instruction with natural science enrichment, using live farm animals as art models and muses. We are located on a secluded 10-acre private woodland/riparian habitat, complete with a year-round running creek. Add to the mix that we are a full-day program centrally located within minutes of the Village of Carlsbad near Palomar Airport. Outdoor art studios, animals, spending warm summer days exploring a natural woodland habitat, and convenience – it’s hard to beat!
This page introduces you to our camp. For Camp Session Dates, rates, and registration information, please click our [Camp Registration] Tab.
About Art Farm Camps
Carlsbad Summer Day Camps are open to students entering Grades 2-8 in Fall 2011. Weekly sessions begin June 13 and continue throughout the summer into mid-August. Hours are 9 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. We also offer an extended day option with drop-off at 8:30 A.M. and pick-up at 4 P.M.
Our Living Classroom
Art Farm is home to Perrin Weston Coman, founder and director of Art Farm; her husband, Chase Coman, a former wildlife biologist; their daughter, Emerson, a 12-year-old animal/art enthusiast, and Art Farm’s animal menagerie. Perrin Weston Coman received her fine arts training at the Academy of Art College in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Access to Art Farm is a half-mile down old Sunny Creek Road and over a sturdy wood bridge (students call it “Thunder Bridge”) traversing Agua Hedionda Creek (Sunny Creek”), which feeds directly into the Agua Hedionda Lagoon reserve. Art Farm’s terrain is dense with native plants, old growth oaks, and sycamore. Our habitat is recognized as an important biome within the Carlsbad Watershed district, which is one reason why the Coman Family opens up their property to local youth during the summer. As conservators of this property since 1962, the Coman family believes that the experiential-based education our community’s students take away from summer camp at Art Farm sensitizes them to the importance and fragility of this biome and the life it supports. All while having a blast making art, hanging-out with animals, playing games, and generally soaking-up the ambiance.
Instruction
Art Farm Summer Camp is structured but fun. Students rotate through four classes daily: drawing, painting, a craft class, and a naturalist class that introduces students to the Art Farm habitat. Classes are grouped according to grade level. Each group works with an instructor and aide in separate outdoor studios. Teacher/student ratio is generally 12-to-1. Teachers are skilled artists or naturalists who work one-one-one with students to guide them according to the skill-level of each student.
Our art curriculum challenges students to learn authentic art technique and gain confidence as visual artists in an environment that keeps them engaged. We do this by stressing how artists look at an object, break it down to its parts, and then render it on a surface. Working outdoors, observing animal models up close and learning how to get that moving, living object down on paper is a phenomenal experience. We also supplement this approach by practicing drawing and painting from photographic images. Working in the natural world keeps our students’ senses so engaged that they don’t notice we’re working them pretty hard.
Time not spent in dedicated classes is more loosely structured. There are lunch and snack breaks; short films in art history and technique; ice cream making; free studio and craft time during which students may continue working on projects started in class or simply practice what they are learning; time spent learning about the care, feeding and handling of animals, and so on. It fills up the day! Many of the younger students also LOVE time on our playground.
Perrin Weston Coman and Chase Coman both grew up as farm kids in the pre-digital Dark Ages. Perrin grew-up on her family-owned 250-acres pear farm in northern California’s Santa Clara Valley (now Silicon Valley”). She bases her approach to art education on the methods she first learned at the Art Academy in San Francisco. Chase has lived in Carlsbad most of his life. He spent his early adulthood roaming the New Mexico wilderness on horseback tracking the migration of elk, among other conservation efforts. Perrin and Chase are pleased to report that today’s wired generation of kids, given the chance to make art while hanging-out in the woods with a bunch of animals, have an unplugged blast.
UK Equestrian
Art Farm would like to introduce UK Equestrian, our neighbor on Sunny Creek Road. UK Equestrian is located on the beautiful old Ride America grounds a half-mile from Art Farm. It is owner/operated by Graeme Dixon, a rider and trainer on the San Diego Hunter/Jumper circuit for more than 15 years. Graeme learned to ride under the “Pony Club” system in England and brings that tradition to UK Equestrian.
Parents interested in riding lessons for their kids (or themselves) may contact Graeme Dixon directly at UKEquestrian@san.rr.com or by calling him at 858-405-6409.
As a convenience for parents, Art Farm will walk your student to UK Equestrian following their day at Art Farm. Carlsbad Art Farm LLC is a legally separate entity from UK Equestrian. We are not legally responsible for students once they are delivered and signed-over to UK Equestrian. Parents are responsible for making all arrangements for riding lessons with UK Equestrian.
Questions
We love questions! If you have any, please feel free to contact us at director@carlsbadartfarm.com.
