Youth Art Camps

Summer camps for creative exploration

With the encouragement of our art educators and studio artists, you can explore new avenues of art and design.

Herron's weeklong summer youth art camps are designed to inspire, pique curiosity, and channel enthusiasm, transforming the wonder of each child's imagination into objects of invention and creativity.

Summer 2021 operations

Herron Community Learning Programs (CLP) is dedicated to the health and safety of its students, instructors, and employees. As a result, CLP sessions will be held entirely online this summer. The session fee includes all materials in the form of an art kit, which will be available for pick-up at Eskenazi Hall.

To ensure that all participants receive an art kit, you must register for June sessions by Monday, May 17, and for July session by Monday, June 21.

CLP will host a virtual gallery of student work every Friday at 3:30 p.m. via Zoom.

Additional resources

  • If you have any questions, contact Es Cole at 317-278-9404 or cole10@iu.edu.
  • Visit covid.iu.edu for the most current information.

Monster Madness

What monsters live under your bed, in your closet, and in your mind?

Develop your own monster by building a small-scale character model, creating a 3-D wearable head, constructing a pop-up paper habitat, and developing a corresponding story using illustration techniques. Consider the bizarre creatures of the Pop Surrealism art movement as your inspiration.

Dates: June 7-11, 2021
Grades: 1 through 4
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Superpowered Art Force

Are you the hero or the villain?

If you love superheroes and villains, join Superpowered Art Force, an art-making extravaganza based on comics, cartoons, and animations. Develop original characters, learn storyboarding techniques, and use air-dry clay to bring your characters to life. Then, become your own superhero with wearable props created using fabrics, paper, and other embellishment materials.

Dates: June 7-11, 2021
Grades: 5 through 8
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Once Upon a Time

What fairy tales live inside of you?

Pique the whimsy of your imagination and explore narrative storytelling inspired by the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. Create characters using a variety of media, develop pop-up books that tell your own fairy tales, and bring them to life through a shadow-puppet theater performance.

Dates: June 14-18, 2021
Grades: 1 through 4
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Epic Storytellers

Your creative journey starts here.

Are you fascinated with stories of adventure and triumph from both films and literature? Create an epic tale of your own using the artistic methods of digital rendering, stop-motion animation, and 3-D modeling. Add to the genre and make the hero's journey your own by designing original archetypal characters, along with their worlds.

This session requires the use of free downloadable apps that are not provided.

Dates: June 14-18, 2021
Grades: 5 through 8
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Stagecraft

How do I tell stories using the language of my body?

Explore the medium of performance art as you move through space, develop your own stories, and create puppet shows. Find inspiration in the projection and costume design work of Mamoru Iriguchi, a Japanese multimedia artist and theater designer. Then, transform into an art persona through your very own one-minute performance.

Dates: June 21-25, 2021
Grades: 1 through 4
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Stylish Creations

How do fashion choices communicate your identity to the world?

Investigate wearable art while learning how other cultures use adornment to tell their stories. Sketch ideas and concepts for your own looks, create larger-than-life cardboard masks, and design 3-D printed jewelry.

This session requires the use of free downloadable apps that are not provided.

Dates: June 21-25, 2021
Grades: 5 through 8
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Worldbuilders

What worlds can you dream up and awaken?

Design and create an imagined world in three-dimensional form using papier-mâché and mixed-media. Then, zooming in, develop a miniature habitat using cardboard and found objects to tell your planet's story – how it was created, the people and creatures that live there, and its distinctive culture. Worldbuilders will culminate with a virtual galaxy installation of all students' planets and a collective script telling the stories of a conceptualized planetary system.

Dates: June 28 – July 2, 2021
Grades: 1 through 4
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Summer Spooktacular

Turn your goosebumps into spooky creations.

Channel your Halloween spirit to design ghoulish environments and creepy creatures. Use your own chilling imagery to create handmade books, haunted houses from paper, and critters from sculpted air-dry clay. This class is designed with age-appropriate spookiness.

Dates: July 12-16, 2021
Grades: 1 through 4
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Fantastic Illustrations

Develop your own compendium of monsters, myths, and legends.

If stories of mythology and folklore inspire you, investigate symbolism used in visual art and Greek and Roman stories to create your own fantastic creatures, characters, and narratives. Bind all the artwork you've created during the week in a handmade illustrated book. Fantastic Illustrations is an excellent follow up to the Epic Storytellers camp.

Dates: July 12-16, 2021
Grades: 5 through 8
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Art Sampler 101

Why choose one camp when you can try a variety of Herron projects?

Experience a sampling of the best introductory art projects Herron's Community Learning Programs has to offer students in grades 1 through 4. Pulled from previous summer camps, projects include using 3-D monsters to tell a haunted tale, creating fairy dust-covered castle paintings, and making papier-mâché planets. Show your work in a virtual exhibition at the end of the week.

Dates: July 19-23, 2021
Grades: 1 through 4
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Art Sampler 201

Why choose one camp when you can try a variety of Herron projects?

Experience a sampling of the best art projects Herron's Community Learning Programs has to offer students in grades 5 through 8. Pulled from previous summer camps, projects include creating original comic books, characters using polymer clay, and custom 3-D printed jewelry. Show your work in a virtual exhibition at the end of the week.

This session requires the use of free downloadable apps that are not provided.

Dates: July 19-23, 2021
Grades: 5 through 8
Location: Online
Times: 10 a.m. – Noon
Cost: $100

Registration for this program has closed.

Financial aid and tuition discounts

Herron provides needs-based scholarships to eligible students and families. Funds are limited and granted on a first-come, first-served basis. To apply, complete our online scholarship application form.

Apply for a scholarship

Siblings and students of IUPUI employees receive a 10% discount. Contact sschool@iupui.edu for the discount code or questions about scholarships.

Kathy and Dan Cunningham

Now enrolling for summer 2021