For those who have children interested in the arts, then Benicia has the perfect outlet for them: EcoArt Camp.

Arts Benicia’s summer camp, now in its fifth year, will once again provide children with the opportunity to attend three class sessions to learn more about and practice the craft of art.

The first session, “Cartoon Creations & Superheroes,” focuses on the pop side of art. Student will have the chance to create original cartoon characters and develop stories to tell their tales through drawing, painting and sculpting. Pat Hall, a longtime art teacher at Benicia Middle School, will teach this class. It will run from June 18 to 22.

“Tinkering and More” will run from June 25 to 29 and focuses on letting kids build things. Children will create their unique three-dimensional arts, learn about basic tools and machines, construction techniques and building with recycled and upcycled materials found. Christina Meister will be the instructor for the class. She has taught tinkering before through the elementary schools’ Exploratory Wheel program and currently teaches at Robert Semple Elementary School.

The final session, “D.IY. Art Exploration” will run from July 9 to 13 and focuses more on the do it yourself side of art. Children will learn the basics sculpting, bread and making pieces of are out of things found in nature and around the house. Tamar Kischner, a longtime librarian and literacy arts specialist, will teach this class.

For the second year in a row, Jeremy Throne will be in charge of EcoArt Camp. Throne said he took this job because he thought it would be fun to work with kids. The father of three believes children attending EcoArt Camp will have fun working with the materials the camp provides.

This year’s EcoArt camp is different than last year because parents can sign their kids up for the camp through online registration, and the camp will run an extra week.

“We are excited to be able to offer online registration,” Throne said. “We are excited to excited to expand to a third week, and we enjoy parenting with the schools and providing this opportunity to the kids around Benicia. It’s really nice to be able to build off the partnership we have established and giving the kids a little more time to spend on the projects they are thinking about.”

All classes will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays at Joe Henderson Elementary School, located at 650 Hastings Drive. The cost is $175 for Arts Benicia family members and $190 for non-members. To register, go to artsbenicia.org/ecoart-camp-2018/.

For children aspiring to be the next Steven Spielberg or Guillermo del Toro, there are four Incrediflix Movie Camps being offered at the Benicia Community Center this summer: Live Action Flix, Animation Flix, Minecraft Flix and a combination of the last two.

Live Action Flix lets children go through the Hollywood process of filmmaking; work in groups to brainstorm, location scout, bring in props and costumes, act and direct in a collaborative movie. The class size is between six to eight children. This camp is a two-day program beginning July 5. It costs $150 for residents and $188 for non-residents.

Animation Flix, running from July 30 to Aug. 3, will teach children how to create up to five stop-motion animated movies. The Benicia Summer Activity Guide describes the camp as “the ultimate arts and crafts camp where you create, direct, and film your movies in age-appropriate groups.” Class sizes for the camp range between six and 14 students. The cost is $195 for residents and $244 for non-residents.

Minecraft Flix, running from July 30 to Aug. 3, allows children to indulge in their Minecraft by letting them create movies from the popular computer game. Groups are broken up by age to write, storyboard, shoot and add voice-overs to their favorite characters from Steve to the Creepers. Classes can hold a maximum of 14 students and a minimum of six. The registration for this camp is $195 for residents and $244 for non-residents.

The Combo Minecraft and Animation Movie Flix is precisely what it sounds like: a combination of the Minecraft and animation camps for a full day experience. It begins July 30 and ends August 3. The camp will cost $345 for residents and $431 for non-residents.

All classes are open to children ages 7 to 12 and will be held at the Benicia Community Center, located at 370 East L St.  Lunch, drinks and snacks are recommended.

For more information on all the camps being offered this summer, visit the Parks & Community Services page at https://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/pcs and click on “Summer 2018 Activity Guide.”

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