Arts Camps Spark Kids’ Creativity
- Hilary Daninhirsch
- Apr 1
- 5 min read
While many kids enjoy ‘traditional’ summer camps, filled with swimming, sports and playing outdoors, many others are drawn to summer arts camps to fulfill their creative spirits. Pittsburgh has no shortage of these types of programs for kids of all ages.
Artspiration
Artspiration, a nonprofit, was founded by Nanci Goldberg, who had worked as an art teacher for 30 years. Based in Sharpsburg, Artspiration will offer a mixed media summer art camp, with sessions geared toward ages 8-12 and another for 13 and over. Goldberg said that the camps will be run by local artist Amy Scafuri, who runs a community organization called Art About Pittsburgh.
“She works with kids to see what they are interested in; she figures out the kids’ strength and goes in that direction,” said Goldberg. These could include collage, painting or sculpture, to name a few examples.
One aspect of the program that is unique is that, as Goldberg put it, there is a “smorgasbord of opportunity. You do not have to do what everyone else is doing.” The week culminates in an art show.
Goldberg said that she wants campers to emerge with the notion that everybody is creative, and that you should follow what you love. This type of camp, she added, is also good for finding like-minded people who also appreciate the creative process.
Attack Theatre
Currently in its 30th anniversary season, Attack Theatre recently moved to a new location in Lawrenceville, enabling them to expand their outreach. The organization has offered summer camps for children for about three years.
Geared for children ages 6-13, the weeklong camp entitled Ignite Imagination will include various genres of dance, creative play, art projects and games that lead into original dance sequences, said Tricia Kohler, outreach and creative learning and engagement manager. The week culminates with pizza and a disco dance party, while parents can join in to see a performance and the artwork that was created.
Another camp, called Adaptive Movement Makers, is focused on kids with different abilities to foster their creative expressions. “We have an inclusive studio, so every child can find their unique rhythm,” said Kohler. In this camp, the goals are for students to gain social skills as well as express what they are thinking or feeling through dance and art while practicing motor skills.
Kaitlin Dann, education director, added that participation in creative camps builds confidence, self-expression and critical thinking. “The beautiful thing about Attack Theatre’s approach to movement is that it is inclusive from the start. You don’t have to have a background in dance or movement to really enjoy and participate fully in the program,” she said.
Gemini Children’s Theater
Children from pre-K all the way through high school seniors can participate in any of Gemini Children’s Theater summer acting workshops. Located in the Ryan Arts & Culture Center in McKees Rocks, Gemini offers Magic Curtain Workshopfor the youngest kids; Star Spotlight Workshop for ages 7-10; Rising Stars Workshop for ages 11-14; and high schoolers can enroll in the ‘Exodus’ Workshop. The participants get involved in the writing and creation of a show that they perform at the end of the week.
“Starting on the first camp day, the campers learn elements of creating a story and how that story becomes a script. The kids get to choose what characters they get to be in their story. They come up with ideas for the plot and what the characters should look like; we create costumes as best we can,” said Executive Director Jill Jeffrey.
In addition to the creative process of developing an original show, Jeffrey said that campers learn how to work as a team for a common goal. “They realize that collaboration comes from communication and respecting others’ ideas, and understanding that while there are no bad ideas, sometimes things have to be thrown out for the story to come together,” said Jeffrey.
Little House Big Art
Perched on a hill with a skyline view of downtown Pittsburgh in a restored old home in the Spring Hill neighborhood, Little House Big Art is a walk-in art studio for the community, where throughout the year, people can paint pottery, work with clay or make jewelry. In the summer, owner Elizabeth Bashur offers a variety of weeklong day camps, primarily for kids ages 7-12; they are either full- or half-day. Participants can choose from mixed media camps, where the kids will do some painting, sculpting, jewelry making and the like; pottery camps; and a dollhouse-themed camp, which has proven to be very popular.
“The kids start off the week with a blank wooden dollhouse. They spend the whole week
making and painting little furniture, making rugs and carpet, art to hang on the walls, and they decorate and make clothes for little figurines,” said Bashur.
Bashur said that art camp is all about skill-building as well as offering a place where kids can have autonomy in their decision-making. “I think there’s been more and more focus on school subjects and a focus on digital media, but kids really need to be able to do things with their hands, like squish clay, move paint around and develop patterns in making jewelry; there’s a lot of joy and pride that comes from that,” said Bashur.
Saturday Light Brigade
The Saturday Light Brigade is a Pittsburgh institution, dating back to the 1970s. The public radio station broadcasts original content every week from its North Side studio, from music to games to live interviews to podcasts.
After a pilot season in 2024, the nonprofit began to offer SLB Radio Summer Camps in 2025. Camps take place in the Youth Media Center, a recording studio with professional audio equipment. Youth Media Center Manager Jozef Kukula is looking forward to another productive summer camp session.
This summer, SLB will offer a two-week podcasting camp called Finding Your Voice for students ages 11-14. In the camp, students will discover, “How do you feel about your voice? How do you want to use it? How can you have an impact as a podcaster?” Students will conduct interviews, explore storytelling and work together on a final product; the end result is a podcast that reflects all the campers,” said Kukula, adding that they will learn storytelling, interviewing, writing and some audio editing skills. There will even be a listening session for families.
Another summer camp offering is Ink to Ear for ages 14-18; the goal is to establish an audio-first digital literary magazine, a project that will continue beyond camp. “This is a literary magazine that will accept submissions and publish student work beginning in the fall,” said Kukula. The third camp is Rhyme and Reason for ages 13-14 that will focus on songwriting and exploring the roots of inspiration.
“A sense of self-discovery is really central to each of these three camps. All of our camps engage with the creative process, and getting to that point where students understand most of the best stuff takes drafting, revising and collaboration,” said Kukula.
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