Over a dozen children spent their summer exploring subjects such as art, dance, culinary, and more at Newtown Continuing Education’s SMART (Summer Music and Art) Camp.

The program ran from June 30 to July 24 and was held at Newtown High School.

Now on its 34th year, SMART Camp offers an array of rotating classes for students exiting kindergarten to sixth grade. These classes, which focus on visual and performing arts, include Clay Workshop, Watercolors, Crafting Chefs, Junk Journaling/Papier-Mâché, Oil and Pastels, Dance, and more.

Newtown Continuing Education Director Jennifer Arnold said the goal of the camp is to let children experience subjects they otherwise might not have the chance to during the school year.

“Students have to focus on a certain curriculum, so they don’t always get to explore things such as oil, chalk, clay, and culinary at the younger level,” Arnold continued. “So this hands-on experience helps them develop a love and passion for art at a young age.”

SMART Camp offers two separate, two-week long sessions every summer. Campers get an itinerary each day and can pick up to three different mediums they want to explore. Some classes will run at the same time, with some students working on art in the high school’s art rooms and other students baking vanilla cupcakes in the culinary room.

Each session culminates in a big showcase, where students get to exhibit what they worked on during camp.

Students in Crafting Chefs have a slideshow with everything they made over the session, students in the program’s many art classes display their work in a special art show, students in the dance class perform for everyone, and so on.

“It’s an opportunity for parents to see what their kids have done, but it’s also for kids to showcase what they’ve made and all the effort they put into it,” Arnold said.

SMART Camp Administrator Kymberly Noone said the showcase falls under Connecticut’s standards for art and music, specifically that children get to perform with the medium of their choice.

She also said it gives students the chance to explore subjects on a smaller scale before they commit to taking a class.

“Students get to perform, see how they feel on a smaller scale, and think on whether they want to pursue that in a bigger way,” Noone explained.

Team Effort

Arnold came into the position as the Director of Newtown Continuing Education in 2020. Noone just so happened to start as an art teacher at NHS at the same time, and taught SMART Camp during her first summer in the district.

Every summer after that, Noone and Arnold always talked and collaborated with each other on different tasks.

“Teaching SMART Camp was a fun experience ... [but] my summers just didn’t line up to teach it again,” Noone said. “So when this opportunity to be an administrator came up, it was perfect.”

With Noone joining as the SMART Camp’s administrator earlier this year, she and Arnold have worked to keep improving the program and make it the best it can be.

Each class is taught by an instructor experienced in the subject they are teaching, with additional assistance from high school interns. These interns help set up supplies, guide students if they are stuck with an activity, handle equipment in subjects like culinary, and more.

Crafting Chefs instructor Lauren Brown not only led students in making food, but also taught them life skills such as sanitization, communication, measuring ingredients, and washing dishes.

Students in the program’s second session were especially excited to bake vanilla cupcakes on July 18.

The class was split into two different teams, with each team working together through the batter-making process. Each student also got to use appliances with assistance from Brown and the high school interns.

Campers then took turns filling cupcake liners with batter, after which Brown put it in the oven. Everyone came together and topped their cupcakes with light blue frosting that they made from scratch.

In the downtime between parts of the recipe, students played quiz games or filled out packets centered on cooking.

Brown, who is a music teacher at Broadview Middle School in Danbury, said teaching Crafting Chefs has been a nice change of pace for her and that she has learned a lot from the experience.

“Having something that’s a different art form and age range is nice,” Brown said. “I also missed teaching elementary, so it’s cool to have them back in a way.”

Several campers also had fun with Junk Journaling/Papier-Mâché, a class where campers had a choice between two art projects.

One project had students make a colorful papier-mâché piñata, while the other project had students make a personalized journal out of their own art, magazine clippings, or pictures of themselves.

To Arnold, the ultimate goal of that class, and SMART Camp as a whole, is for students to explore themselves and explore their creative process.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.