Welcome to Carlsbad Art Farm Summer Day Camp, a Nickelodeon Parents’ Pick Award Nominee. 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 know about Art Farm from attending past camps, classes, and field trips here. We serve the greater San Diego area, with a focus on becoming the top art camp in San Diego North County. You can read more about Art Farm in Ranch & Coast Magazine and Coast News. (Add links here, Ranch & Coast Magazine: http://RanchAndCoast.com/FOCUS/18/FAMILY/1702/CREATIVE-CAMPS/
The Coast News: http://thecoastnews.com/2010/04/young-artists-find-animals-education-at-camp/)
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. Art Farm is located on a secluded 10-acre woodland/riparian habitat, complete with a year-round running creek. In addition, this full-day program is centrally located, within minutes of the Village of Carlsbad near Palomar Airport. Outdoor art studios, animals, spending warm summer days exploring nature, and convenience — it’s hard to beat!
For Camp Session Dates, rates, and registration information, please click on Camp Registration.
About this San Diego North County Art Camp
Carlsbad Summer Day Camps are open to students entering Grades 2-8 in Fall 2012. Weekly sessions begin June 11 and continue throughout the summer into mid-August. Hours are 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Our Living Classroom
Art Farm is home to Perrin Weston Coman, founder and director of this beautiful San Diego North County art camp; her husband, Chase Coman, a former wildlife biologist; their daughter, Emerson, a 13-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 day camp is structured but fun. Students rotate through four classes daily: drawing, painting, a craft class, and a natural science enrichment 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, with a teacher/student ratio that is generally 12 to 1. Our instructors are skilled artists or naturalists who work one-on-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 paper. Working outdoors, observing animal models up close, and learning how to capture that moving, living object in a creative way 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; and time spent learning about the care, feeding and handling of animals. It fills up the day! Many of the younger students also LOVE time on our playground.
Questions
We love questions! If you have any, please feel free to contact us at director@carlsbadartfarm.com.
