Introduce your children to the world of art through Summer Art Camps at the DAI. Campers explore the museum with fun gallery games, new interdisciplinary art lessons, creative art projects and more. These half-day or week-long camps, taking place during June, July and August, are tailored to a variety of age groups and feature many different art activities. 

Children will learn and get inspired by the museum’s collection and create their own masterpieces using 2D and 3D art-making techniques in our studios. Kids entering 1st grade through 9th grade will have fun all summer long in weekly, mixed-media art camps.

July 15–July 19 (12-17yrs old, 7-9th Grade)

9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Morning session: Careers for Creators: Your Start in the Arts

• Interested in the arts and want to learn how to turn it into a career? This is the camp for you! Delve into hands-on lessons designed to build and strengthen artistic skill sets and knowledge while meeting artists and other arts professionals in their chosen fields. Build a portfolio and gain expertise and helpful advice for your future career goals! All levels of experience and talent are welcome. Specific topics of interest include fine art and graphic design, illustration, architecture, visual communication, gallery installation and much more!

1:00-4:00 p.m. Afternoon session: Picture This: Photography Camp

• A picture says a thousand words, so we’ll keep this description short. You, a camera and a multitude of photographic subjects await you for this one-of-a-kind photography class! Learn photographic composition skills while studying great works of art in the museum. Explore how the worlds of photography, printmaking and painting can be combined to create unique works of art. Take a shot at this class to learn how to take a selfie to the next level and discover how to capture moments in time so that they can last forever.

July 22–July 26 (12-17yrs old, 7-9th Grade)

9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Morning session: Sketching in Style: Fashionable Illustrations and Character Creations

• Become quite the character with this innovative and illustrative camp that explores storyboarding, fashion design, character design, creative writing, comic creation and exploring your own sense of style! Students will learn drawing and painting techniques from an illustrative perspective to create and develop characters, icons, artist trading cards and designs that visually communicate stories, emotions and ideas. All levels of drawing experience are welcome. Discussion of video games, comic books, board games and movies is encouraged.

1:00-4:00 p.m. Afternoon session: Small but Mighty: Mixed Media Miniatures Sculpture Camp

• Learn the big ideas behind making small sculptures! Students will create miniatures in cardboard, clay, metal and more to develop dioramas, custom figures, Surrealistic creatures, artful jewelry, imaginative board games and much more! While exploring the many miniature works in the museum’s collection, including the Japanese miniature art form of netsuke and South American works in gold and clay, students will see that their world of possibilities may not be that small after all!