Hey, kids, summer is just around the corner. Soon the youth of Benicia will be awash with activities, whether it is going to the beach or the pool, having delicious barbecues or spending time at camp. When it comes to summer camps, there is no shortage in Solano County. For those who consider themselves to be more creative or artistically inclined, Arts Benicia has the summer camp just for you.

EcoArt Camp will return this summer to give third, fourth and fifth-graders a chance to hang out with friends while creating unique items, expressing themselves through art and learning important lessons in recycling. According to Arts Benicia Director Celeste Smeland, the program began in 2014 under the leadership of the previous Arts Benicia director, Larnie Fox.

“It came out of the idea that there is a deep commitment to youth and kids and art at Arts Benicia,” Smeland said.

The camp also highlights the organization’s commitment to sustainability, even receiving funding from the Benicia Community Sustainability Commission.

“This was all part of the planning for the Eco Art Camp about three years ago,” she said. “It was a desire to offer kids a really fun and artistic learning experience, as well as introducing them and supporting their knowledge of sustainability.”

Classes will take place in four weeklong sessions operating under a different theme and being taught by professional artists. The theme from June 20 to 24 will be “Tinkering,” which will be taught by children’s art instructor Annie Kachuk. Students will be working within a makerspace and learning about working with machines, construction techniques and building with recycled materials. They will also get to use hammers and drills.

“They get to build things that are three-dimensional, and it’s really cool,” Smeland said. “The kids love that.”

June 27 through July 1 will be “Off the Wall” week, taught by Marissa Bergmann, an integrated arts teacher at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School in San Francisco. Under her guidance, students will create three-dimensional works of art, using papier-mache, wire, clay, paint and upcycled materials.

“They’ll learn about not only how to handle art materials and cool art-making techniques but also problem solving,” Smeland said. “It’s going to be their own design, so it will be that kind of constructive thinking of ‘How do I create what I’m imagining?’”

The following week from July 5 to July 8— no class will be held on Independence Day— will be “Art Mashup,” taught by Vallejo mixed media mosaic artist Sherry Tobin. Kids will be working with everything from mosaics to printmaking to assemblage and collage.

“This will be really fun for kids who want to try different things,” Smeland said.

The works will be created using upcycled materials like bottle caps and corks.

“That’s a big theme for us: taking found objects and figuring out how to make it different and even more beautiful,” Smeland said.

Finally, from July 11 to July 15, the theme will be “Cartooning,” taught by Benicia Middle School’s very own Pat Hall. Children will take inspiration from cartoons, comics and manga to create their own characters and develop stories based around them. These characters could range from superheroes to space aliens to everything in between.

“Kids these days are so imaginative, and they already have a whole storyboard in their minds about different characters and situations and fantasy worlds,” Smeland said. They get to bring that fantasy world to life.”

Smeland says the camp will be very beneficial for young, creative minds.

“Not only is it going to be terrific fun, but they will really learn and make things, and it will be a wonderful way for them to spend a few hours during the summer to really have this concentrated art-making experience and come away with their own creations and in the meantime come away with skills in problem-solving and interacting with other kids in a creative and open environment,” she said.

All EcoArt Summer Camp classes will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Robert Semple Elementary School, located at 2015 E. 3rd St. The price for the first, third and fourth sessions is $170 for Arts Benicia members and $185 for non-members. For the shortened third session, the price is $160 for members and $175 for non-members. Registration forms can be downloaded at ArtsBenicia.org. The camp is open to all incoming third, fourth and fifth-graders as well as graduating fifth-graders, both in and outside Benicia. A limited number of partial scholarships are available, courtesy of the Solano Association of Realtors Foundation. For more information, call Arts Benicia at 747-0131.