Visual Arts Camp

July 16-21, 2023 Grades 8-12 (grade completion)

About Visual Arts Camp

If you're excited about art, we invite you to challenge yourself in a variety of art media at our Visual Arts Camp. You'll experiment with new materials and techniques while producing portfolio-quality work.
You'll also experience:

Group art and recreation activities.
Performance art presentations.
Presentations by nationally known artists, art historians and studio artists.

You'll stay in Gilbert Hall during camp. Your experience will end with an art show open to your friends and family. All campers will receive a camp t-shirt!

For more information check out camp information and policies.

Thank you to Prismacolor, the sponsor of Visual Arts Camp.

What to Bring to Art Camp

Comfortable/sturdy walking shoes or sandals
- Note: Flip flops should only be used in the residence hall.
Umbrella or rain gear
Mosquito repellent
Sweatshirt
Alarm clock
Water bottle
Sheets and pillowcase (standard twin size)
Towels, blanket, pillow
Small amount of money for souvenirs and snacks
Old clothes for studio work
$10 key deposit: envelope with check/cash/money order with the camper’s name on the outside.

Activities

You'll attend two studio classes each day. When you register, you'll indicate your choices for classes. The class content changes every year, providing new experiences for both new and returning students. There is limited space in each class, and classes with insufficient enrollment may be cancelled.

In addition to studio classes, you'll enjoy presentations by accomplished guest speakers as they share their career paths in the visual arts. You will receive your studio assignments at camp check-in.

Morning Classes

Drawing Realism - Becki Miller
Using traditional drawing materials, campers create realistic drawings that address both composition and concept. Techniques are explored that allow artists to render images expressively, using mark making, visual texture, and subtle gradations.
Portraits in Acrylic- Tim Roloff
Students explore portraiture through observation and experimentation using acrylic paint to create works that reflect personal content.
Painting with Pastel – Ashley Martinez
Students will be introduced to the responsive and subtle surfaces created by pastel. Using artist-quality hard and soft pastels, this class will explore developing transitional layers of color to build smooth surfaces as well as expressive mark-making. Imagery options will include portraiture and still life.
Creating with Color – Samantha Haring
Students explore unexpected and inventive use of color in drawing and painting. Students learn to build visually powerful surfaces using color in a representational or non-traditional way. Using a variety of materials, works are created to reflect symbolic and personal ideas.
Figure Sculpting- April Macatangay
Students will learn accurate human proportions and how to sculpt the human form with modeling clay. This class includes experimenting with sculpting muscle structures, clothing, textures, and different postures to create figures that show depth and narrative.
Experimental Drawing Practices – John Zilewicz
Exploring a multitude of media, methods and techniques, students will use unconventional approaches to drawing in order to develop creative and imaginative approaches to art making. Skill building as well as producing works based on chance will allow students to examine the possibilities of mark-making, space, and surface.

Afternoon Classes

Printmaking – TBD
Students will explore a variety of printmaking techniques and experiences. The focus of this class will be to develop a series of prints as students work in the NIU printmaking studio.
Acrylic Painting - Courtney Haugdahl
Learning traditional and expressive acrylic painting techniques, students will create dynamic and dramatic paintings that reflect technical excellence.
Experimental Drawing Studies - Bjana Lunde
Using a variety of colored pencil techniques including expressive mark making, students will use observation skills to create drawings that record visual information in new ways.
Life Drawing – Ailysh Cooper
Students will learn to draw the human figure while being introduced to college-level life drawing concepts and techniques. A variety of materials will be used while working from a live model.
Sketchbook Reimagined - John Zilewicz
Benefits of a daily sketchbook practice include quick thinking, responsive drawing, sensitivity to visual stimuli and immediacy of response. Students will focus on idea development and experimentation within a sketchbook format. Using collage, drawing, painting and mixed media processes, students will concentrate on producing imagery reflecting their own personal voice.
Sculpture – Dustan Creech
Students will experiment with the construction of 3D forms focusing on exploring a variety of materials, techniques, and personal narrative. Developing forms that convey meaning, artists will create final works that consider design concepts as well as use materials in inventive ways.

Registration

Early bird registration fee: $700 (postmarked June 1 or earlier)

Registration fee: $750

Registration Deadline: June 28, 2023

Art supply fee: $85 (mandatory)

Online Registration

Returning camper and NIU family discount: $25 (for campers who have previously attended Visual Arts Camp and the children and grandchildren of NIU students, staff and faculty members)

Camp fills quickly, so register early! You can register online or by mail. You'll pay a $100 deposit when you register (unless applying for a summer camp scholarship). The remaining balance is due on June 15.

Need-based scholarship assistance is available!

Replacement key cards and deposit: All campers must bring a deposit to the first day of camp to be given a key to their room. These funds will not be deposited but will be held by the Summer in the Arts office in the case of a lost key. The funds will be deposited only in the case that a key is lost. Key deposits are returned to campers when they return their room keys at camp check out.

The deposit can be check, money order, or cash.
Please put the deposit in an envelope with the camper’s name
Deposit Amount: $10

Camp Staff

Our Visual Arts Camp staff includes talented NIU faculty and students, alumni, guest artists, and award-winning area art teachers. The ratio of campers to staff members is about 12:1. Staff members are assigned to each residence hall floor and accompany campers to all meals and activities. Complete camp staff info will be available soon.

Lynn Stockton (camp director) Lynn Stockton has been a high school art teacher for 30 years. She is a Nationally Board-Certified Teacher. In 2008, she was recognized by the Illinois Art Education Association as the Secondary Art Teacher of the Year. Her students have won numerous awards and scholarships at the local, state, and national levels. She has helped to facilitate and restructure the visual art programs of two Illinois school districts and was instrumental in the addition of Advanced Placement Studio Art as an option for high school students in those districts. In June 2011 she was appointed to the National Prismacolor Advisory Council. She is currently teaching at Rockford Jefferson High School where she heads the largest advanced placement studio art program in northern Illinois. Ms. Stockton has been the director of the Visual Arts Camp since 2001.

Ailysh Cooper (life drawing) Ailysh grew up in Oswego, IL and attended this art camp for four years leading up to college, when she began attending NIU. Ailysh is finishing her degree in Art and Design Education and is currently student teaching junior high.

Dustan Creech (sculpture) Dustan Creech is a sculptor from Birmingham, Al and currently resides in Elmhurst where he is the associate professor of sculpture and ceramics at Elmhurst University. He received his B.F.A., sculpture from the University of Alabama, Birmingham and his MFA, Sculpture from Northern Illinois University. His multidisciplinary work has been exhibited internationally as well as locally.

Samantha Haring (creating with color) Samantha Haring is an artist and educator from Des Plaines, Illinois. She makes quiet paintings that speak to the duality of absence and presence. Haring earned her M.F.A. from Northern Illinois University in 2014 and her B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. She spent a summer in Italy at the International School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture; it was there that she fully developed her commitment to light, color and observational painting. Haring was one of the 2015-16 Artists-in-Residence at Manifest Gallery. She teaches drawing and design courses in the School of Design at DAAP and she has been a resident instructor at Manifest Drawing Center since 2016. Haring’s work is published in issues #119 and #123 of New American Paintings, as well as several recent Manifest INDA and INPA publications. She is represented by Gallery 19 in Chicago. Her studio practice is currently based in Cincinnati, where she spends an inordinate amount of time staring at the color of dust.

Courtney Haugdahl (acrylic painting) Courtney Haugdahl is an art education student at Northern Illinois University, an honors student, and a member of the honor society, Phi Kappa Phi. Courtney's favorite art medium is painting, and she enjoys reading and making art in her spare time. Art has been a way for Courtney to challenge herself inside and outside the classroom and she hopes to always continue to learn more about it beyond school. She has worked at the Visual Arts Camp for several years.

April Macantagay (figure sculpting) April Macatangay received her bachelor's degree in art education from NIU in 2005 and earned her bachelor's degree in fine arts from NIU in 2007. She has been an artist-in-residence in Poland, as well as the Philippines, where she learned to make traditional clothing from pineapple fiber. Her work has been exhibited widely and she currently teaches in the Chicagoland area. April has worked with the Visual Arts Camp for several years.

Ashley Martinez (painting with pastel) Ashley is a recent NIU Studio Art graduate. She is currently working as a commisioned pastel portrait artist and bi-lingual elementary teacher in Rockford Public Schools.

Becki Miller (drawing realism) Becki Miller is currently a local and freelance artist. She has long-term plans for a career in art education. She has been involved in the camp since 1998 as a camper and became a counselor in 2002.

Timothy Roloff (acrylic painting) Tim Roloff graduated from NIU in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in art education. He has been teaching art at Woodstock North High School for the past 2 years. Tim has been a counselor at Art Camp since 2014.

John Zilewicz (experimental drawing practices) John Zilewicz is an artist and educator in the Chicago area. He has a MA in Painting and Drawing and holds a BA in Two-Dimensional Studio Art. With over 20 years of teaching experience, Zilewicz is an instructor with an entertaining style of teaching art and he brings thoughtful and colorful enthusiasm to the classroom discussion. He currently teaches AP and Advanced Studio level courses at Niles West High School where he's been at since 2006. Each year, his students are recognized at local, state and national competitions for their excellence in the visual arts. Zilewicz himself was recognized for his contributions to art education and received the Illinois Secondary Art Educator of the Year Award in 2016. He is also the Creator of the Illinois High School Art Exhibition (IHSAE), an exhibition program that has gained national recognition around the country from top art schools, colleges and universities. He currently serves as the organizations Executive Director. In his personal artistic practice, Zilewicz explores several different themes, but mark-making, intuitive painting and found object assemblage are among his favorites. Zilewicz works from his home studio in Arlington Heights. He exhibits his artwork regularly and has been featured in various exhibitions and local galleries.

Bjana Lunde (experimental drawing studies)

Schedule

A general overview of the camp schedule is below.

Date and Time	Activity	Location
Sunday 1:45-3 p.m.	Check-in	Check in at Gilbert Hall lobby and pick up camp materials. Free parking is available at the visitor pay lot just south of Neptune hall.
Sunday 3:15 p.m.	Orientation	Jack Arends Hall, room 100 Parents are welcome at this orientation session with the camp director and staff.
Sunday to Friday	Camp activities	Jack Arends Hall
Friday 5 p.m.	Closing ceremony/art show	Jack Arends Hall After the show, pick up your luggage from Gilbert Hall.

Summer in the Arts

Contact Us

College of Visual and Performing Arts
Office of External Programs
Music Building 132

Kristin Sherman
815-753-1450
ksherman2@niu.edu

Online Office Hours

Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
(lunch from noon – 1 p.m.)

Join Our Camps Mailing List

Northern Illinois University
College of Visual and Performing Arts
Office of External Programs