Allied Arts of Milledgeville hosted two camps that offered children summer fun and educational experiences related to the arts.
“The main focus of these camps is having a fun place to create and teach the kids about different social interactions,” said organizer Rachel Foster. “Both camp teachers are very much into the educational aspect of what they’re doing, so they try to teach the kids as much as possible while also giving them a really fun experience.”
The first camp was the Watercolor Camp, which was led by Dr. Audrey Crumbley in her first year on the Allied Arts leadership board. Crumbley, an emergency medicine physician in Milledgeville, has a very experienced background in watercolor painting, and prioritized teaching the proper techniques. The children would learn a new principle each day and would come home with a new piece that demonstrates what they learned to their parents.
In addition to being taught painting techniques, Foster explained that the children learned patience and how to relax, as painting is something that requires a lot of focus and waiting to do properly.
Across the street at Allen’s Market, Ruby Werts led the Tiny Acts Camp, which taught basic theatre lessons to preschoolers. For this camp, there were different time slot classes for the group of three-and-four-year-olds and another group of five-and-six-year-olds. At the end of the week, each class put on a performance for their parents showing off everything they learned, which included everything from on-stage presence to being a polite spectator.
“The primary goal is to have fun of course, but theatre also teaches a lot of life lessons that these kids will eventually have to use, so it’s important to at least start instilling some of the good qualities like being polite to everyone as early as possible,” said Werts.
Werts has previous teaching experience through involvement with the local theatre community for “a little bit more than several years” according to a smiling Foster, who explained she was in one of Werts’ classes when she was in school. Werts has always been passionate about what she does, and even adds to her collection of props and costumes out of her own pocket year after year.
“She cares a lot about each kid that comes to any of her camps she has, and she makes a big emphasis on just how much you learn about life can come from these types of classes,” said Abbey Warnock, a 22-year-old nursing student who assisted Werts in the preschool camps.
Although the watercolor camp was limited to eight participants due to resource constraints, Foster said the theatre camps would sometimes go up to 20 kids before the pandemic forced everyone to reduce the maximum capacity . Despite the restrictions, both leaders of the camps were very happy with the turnout and the kids were more than happy to show anyone who was around what they had learned in their respective camps.