Learn all about fish and fishing in this perfect summer class. We’ll fish lakes and rivers all week long while learning about fish biology, ecology, bait, lures, rods and reels with some of the best fishing guides around. A fishing trip by canoe or raft will help fine-tune your skills to land the big one.

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Using a point-and-shoot camera, students will begin to look at the world through a different lens. We will experiment with lighting, angles and object placement in our photographs throughout the week. Students will be exposed to both traditional and nontraditional photography processes using photographs, negatives and found objects. Our goal will be to find the unseen as we learn to pay attention to detail. Students will be required to provide their own disposable cameras.

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Spend a week with a medical student at the VCU Medical Center and meet health care professionals in different fields. By visiting different laboratories and having hands-on experiences and interactions with health professionals, students learn about the challenges and rewards of health care careers.

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Let your child’s first experience with our greatest playwright be filled with the fun of playing! Before they can develop “Shakes-feare,” students get hooked on the stories, characters and the wonderful world of words. Students spend the week learning and playing out an abbreviated version of one of his most famous plays. Meanwhile, they discover Shakespeare and his era, a taste of Elizabethan culture and basic acting techniques (i.e., stage direction, movement and speech). The week culminates with a student performance of “As You Like It” during the final class.

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Inanimate objects and materials will be brought to life in this survey of traditional and contemporary experimental animation approaches. Emphasis will be placed on expression and improvisation as each student designs and produces his or her animated sequences.

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Learn all about fish and fishing in this perfect summer class. We’ll fish lakes and rivers all week long while learning about fish biology, ecology, bait, lures, rods and reels with some of the best fishing guides around. A fishing trip by canoe or raft will help fine-tune your skills to land the big one.

This class is currently at capacity and a waitlist is in place. Please indicate an alternate class choice on your registration form.

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This is a fun, skills-building class in which students will explore a variety of techniques and media that will rapidly improve drawing abilities. Taking advantage of the area around us (i.e., architecture, parks, streets and in-class subjects), students will create drawings worthy of display!

This class is currently at capacity and a waitlist is in place. Please indicate an alternate class choice on your registration form.

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This course provides students with an opportunity to create wheel-thrown vessels and explore how to hand-build ceramic sculptural forms. Students also learn various ways to finish their functional ceramic work using different glazing techniques.

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Let your child’s first experience with our greatest playwright be filled with the fun of playing! Before they can develop “Shakes-feare” students get hooked on the stories, characters and the wonderful world of words. Students spend the week learning and playing out an abbreviated version of one of his most famous plays. Meanwhile, they discover Shakespeare and his era, a taste of Elizabethan culture and basic acting techniques (i.e., stage direction, movement and speech). The week culminates with a student performance of “As You Like It” during the final class.

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Explore the many methods and types of printmaking. We will experiment with silkscreen, blockprinting and monoprinting. We will create a series of each with various methods, papers and duplications.

This class is currently at capacity and a waitlist is in place. Please indicate an alternate class choice on your registration form.

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Students learn how to turn people, animals and everyday objects into cartoon characters. We explore basic drawing techniques as we create our characters and turn them into comic strips.

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This creative class will allow students to make both 2-D and 3-D art projects. Students will experiment with the millefiori technique, which creates distinctive decorative patterns, and handbuilding to create figurative sculptures, jewelry or functional works of art.

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Students will learn to turn everyday items into works of art. Using things we bring from home, purchase at any variety store or scrounge from the outdoors, the course will focus on assemblages and constructions using these “found” objects. Starting with small works to learn the process, students will proceed with more intricate designs while working their way to making larger sculptures.

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Spend a week with a medical student at the VCU Medical Center and meet health care professionals in different fields. By visiting different laboratories and having hands-on experiences and interactions with health professionals, students learn about the challenges and rewards of health care careers.

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Learn more about cartooning, with the emphasis on composition and telling a story through a combination of words and pictures. Drawing instruction in this class will be geared more toward the individual student. Students are strongly encouraged to have taken at least one basic cartooning class.

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A wet week is in store during this hands-on exploration of the ecology of Virginia’s waters. We’ll travel to a different destination each day — rivers, streams and other wetlands — to investigate energy flow and food webs in aquatic ecosystems, examine fossil remains of extinct aquatic organisms and generally explore the waters and wildlife of the area. A highlight of the week is a canoe or tubing trip down a scenic river. Swimming skills are required.

This class is currently at capacity and a waitlist is in place. Please indicate an alternate class choice on your registration form.

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Spend a week in scrubs and discover the exciting world of nursing. A hands-on week of exploration will include visits to operating and emergency rooms, a look at pediatric nursing with a visit to the neonatal intensive care unit and an introduction to the latest equipment and skills being used by members of the nursing profession. This course is presented by the VCU School of Nursing and the VCU Medical Center.

This class is currently at capacity and a waitlist is in place. Please indicate an alternate class choice on your registration form.

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Students will learn to turn everyday items into works of art. Using things we bring from home, purchase at any variety store or scrounge from the outdoors, the course will focus on assemblages and constructions using these “found” objects. Starting with small works to learn the process, students will proceed with more intricate designs while working their way to making larger sculptures.

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This course provides students with an opportunity to create wheel-thrown vessels and explore how to hand-build ceramic sculptural forms. Students also learn ways to finish their functional ceramic work using different glazing techniques.

Back to top »

Using a point-and-shoot camera, students will begin to look at the world through a different lens. We will experiment with lighting, angles and object placement in our photographs throughout the week. Students will be exposed to both traditional and nontraditional photography processes using photographs, negatives and found objects. Our goal will be to find the unseen as we learn to pay attention to detail. Students will be required to provide their own disposable cameras.

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This class is a must for anyone interested in fashion art and design. Students will create designs on paper and transfer them to fabric. Some in-class sewing may occur, but students do not need sewing experience to participate in this class. The opportunity to display projects at a fashion show organized by the class is the highlight of the week.

This class is currently at capacity and a waitlist is in place. Please indicate an alternate class choice on your registration form.

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Working from their own designs, students will use various types of tesserae (small pieces of tile, glass, mirror or stones) and colored grouts to make a mosaic panel. Students may also experiment with 3-D mosaic sculptures.

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Students will engage in a variety of activities dealing with the many aspects of engineering. Wireless radios and robotic ants may very well be part of the week’s activities as we spend time in the labs and workrooms of the VCU School of Engineering, exploring the many career options available in the world of engineering.

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This course will build on the skills learned in the beginner-level class. Learn how to fish using the types of equipment the experts use to increase your chances of catching the big one. Students will get a more comprehensive understanding of fish biology and ecology. Completion of the beginner-level “Go Fish” course or several years of fishing experience are recommended for students enrolling in this course.

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Creativity is the key in this class full of exploration and new media. Using imagination and inspiration from music, friends, places and people who inspire, students will work with processes and materials not used before to create works of art that they will treasure. This promises to be an adventurous week with students bringing home a project per day that can proudly be displayed!

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Using watercolor or acrylic paints, students learn to paint like the pros and create paintings with strong, exciting images. We’ll find subjects that students like and learn how to recreate them realistically using paint. People, animals, landscapes, vehicles — the only limit is imagination.

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This class is for those students who enjoyed the “Playing with Light” course and want to experience more photography. The focus will be creating meaningful and creative images by observing our surroundings. We will have the opportunity to take a lot of pictures in a variety of settings and build on our knowledge of composition. Students will work on creating different types of images using traditional and nontraditional techniques. Students will be required to provide their own disposable cameras.

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This class is designed for those students who’ve previously taken a “Fashion Design Fun” course and are interested in furthering their exploration of fashion art and design. Students create designs on paper and transfer them to fabric. Some in-class sewing may occur, but students do not need sewing experience to participate in this class. The opportunity to display projects at a fashion show organized by the class is the highlight of the week.

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Inanimate objects and materials will be brought to life in this survey of traditional and contemporary experimental animation approaches. Emphasis will be placed on expression and improvisation as each student designs and produces his or her animated sequences.

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Focus for students this week will be on the different aspects of handbuilding: molds, casting, slab, pinch and coil. Learning these processes will be hands-on and after completion of projects such as dragons, story corners, Hopi pots and boxes, the projects can be proudly displayed at the end of the week.

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