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As strips of wet plaster are applied to her face, 9-year-old Claudia Quintero’s facial expression is a mixture of shock and excitement. She giggles and describes what’s happening to her as “the awesomest feeling in the world.”
Claudia, along with 13 other girls, created masks during the June 26 session of the Artists in Training summer camp run by the Glenview Park District. The camp, aimed at children in grades 4-6, runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.
Artists in Training is a camp designed for children who enjoy doing art projects, said Camp Director Robin Singer. The class provides them with an opportunity to create projects they might not complete in school. Each morning, the children create a new piece of artwork before heading to Flick Pool in the afternoon.
This summer’s class is one of the smallest groups Singer has had, while previous summers classes have had as many as 25 students. Another distinction of the class is that only girls signed up this summer, she said.
Regardless of the class size or make-up of its students, the burgeoning artists are still benefiting from the program.
“Some of these kids are really talented and are more serious about art,” she said.
While Singer wants to help the budding artists with their craft, she also wants the campers to have fun and really enjoy making art.
Kiley Murnane, 9, said in her school art classes, she usually just draws, but this class gives her the chance to work on other projects, like making the plaster masks, which are more fun for her.
Singer said she tries to come up with one-of-a-kind projects to differentiate between what students in learn in school art classes versus what they experience at the camp.
“I want them to do things they don’t do in art class,” she said. “The camp is low-key; they work at their own pace. There are no deadlines. [Each day] they can pick up where they left off.”
Claudia and friend Vienna Motsinger, 9, both participated in an art camp last summer and enjoy their school art classes. When their mothers found out about Artists in Training, they decided to sign up together.
“We do almost everything together,” Vienna said.
Another perk for campers is that the kids go swimming in the afternoon. Kiley said she likes to go to the pool and Vienna said she’s very big on swimming.
Before the kids could hit the pool though there was a mask making project to be completed.
The masks were the third project students were creating; the previous two projects were dragons embossed on silver paper and rain sticks filled with beans. Constructing the masks was by far the messiest and most fun artistic experiment the girls had attempted yet, Singer said.
Singer demonstrated the mask-making process using Mary Kate Maginot, 9, as a model. After spreading a thin layer of Vaseline on her face, Singer quickly applied wet, drippy plaster bandages to Mary Kate’s face. After a couple of minutes, the mask would harden, and be able to keep its form when peeled off.
“It feels cool,” Mary Kate said smiling, with her eyes wide, as the first few strips were places onto her face.
Once her face was covered with the strips, she wasn’t able to speak. She scurried over to the sink to see what she looked like in a mirror. Once the mask was pulled off, Mary Kate excitedly shared how it felt with the other girls.
“I looked like a ghost!” she said. “It feels like someone’s putting Play-Doh on your face… so weird. “
The girls spent their time debating whether or not they looked more like ghosts, zombies or mummies as they layered the plaster bandages onto their faces.
Alyson Merkle, 11, has attended the camp for three years and said making a mask was one of the art projects she was looking forward to most.
“You get messy and have fun,” she said. “You get to paint [the masks] and put Vaseline on your face.”
A fan of art, Alyson is glad she’s been able to participate in the camp for as long as she has. She wishes she could participate again next summer, but she will be older than the cut off age of 12.
“I like arts and crafts and it’s fun to come here and not have a schedule,” she said. “I get to do what I like to do.”
To learn more about summer camps like Artists in Training, visit glenviewparks.org.
