The Arts in Strongsville provides fine arts activities for children ages 4-12 during one week of the summer in conjunction with the Strongsville Summer Camp. Each camper participates in music, art, dance, and drama classes.
View a video of the 2016 Camp Applause, celebrating Strongsville’s 200th birthday.
Find out more info about this year’s Camp Applause here!
2018 Camp Applause
Camp Applause 2018
July 9,10 and 12, 2018
Arts in Strongsville provides fine arts activities for children ages 4-12 during one week of the summer in conjunction with the Strongsville Summer Camp. Each camper participates in music, art, dance, and drama classes.
This year’s camp theme was “Route 66.” While taking a trip down the “Main Street of America”, the children learned about its attractions and historical significance. Their vacation out West included creating license plates, learning traffic rules, completing a scavenger hunt, and performing a song and dance about the route.
Firemen and Policemen were acknowledged and honored for the safety they provide for our community on the final day of camp. They were given treats for their departments and collaborative art projects were made by the students during class.
Here is a video that documented all of the kicks that the campers got out of Route 66!
2013 Camp Applause
Camp Applause 2013
Camp Applause 2013 was a big success! With 100 plus children ages 4-12 participating there was no shortage of creativity at the Strongsville Summer Camp!
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Arts in Strongsville’s Camp Applause offered a series of classes in both visual and performing arts to the children of the Strongsville Summer Camp during the week of July 8th, 2013. While the children took classes in music, dance, acting and visual Arts, professional theatre artist Lisa Kish also came in as a special guest instructor. Lisa offered two mornings of workshops in theatrical props, make-up and costume design. If you have been to a professional theater in Cleveland chances are you have seen Lisa’s work behind the scenes, particularly her many years of dedication to the Cleveland Opera. She is currently working on a new project The Prop House in downtown Cleveland.
Lisa Kish along with Heidi Boone will be volunteering with Legacy in Education in the theatre arts tent at Arts in Strongsville’s A Day at the Chalet on Sunday, September 15th. Be sure to stop by and meet Lisa!
Spotlight on Performing Arts Classes
Song and Dance Class Instructor Mackenzie Cunningham
Mackenzie Cunningham is a two-year member and captain of the Lake Erie Monsters dance team. She is also an officer and three-year member of the honors a cappella group “Rhythm & Roos” at University of Akron. She received formal ballet training at The Joffrey Ballet School of NYC, The Kirov Academy in Washington DC and the Ohio Conservatory of Ballet. Mackenzie graduated with honors from Strongsville High School where she was a 4 year member of the Mustang Express Show Choir and served as Dance Captain. She received both academic and dance scholarships to the University of Akron Honors College where she is majoring in Speech-Language Pathology and minoring in Dance. At Camp Applause, Mackenzie taught song and dance. Campers learned how to do both vocal and dance warm-ups, how to find rhythm in music, and learned dance terms and steps. Each age group learned a dance and the dances were performed on the last day of camp for fellow campers.
Acting Class Instructor Kelly Elliot Clark
Kelly Elliott Clark has taught drama to children for over 30 years. She has had fun recently working with Legacy in Education and Western Reserve Playhouse. Kelly’s professional theater experience includes teaching drama workshops for Stage One: The Professional Theater for Young Audiences in Louisville, KY while working for the Louisville Theatrical Association. She currently is a teacher candidate with Western Governors University and will be graduating in June 2014 with her Bachelors of Art in Interdisciplinary Studies K – 8 and with that will be teaching children in K – 5th grade!
A note from Kelly!
I had a blast working with the Arts in Strongsville. I believe all the students walked away with knowing a bit more about theater and acting. I also believe, by watching the students through the week that some even gained confidence with what we were doing with our pantomimes and improvisations while using different props and hats. One student who was incredibly shy on the first day and had to “helped” along by one of the counselors, blossomed the next day when we starting working with different types of hats. He was having so much fun that he didn’t want to put the hats down!
On the first day we started out with a movement exercise to music from Jurassic Park. Pre-School to 9 year olds learned how to be dinosaurs while listening and moving to the music. The 10 – 12 year olds became dinosaurs and worked as a team to come up with an improvisation given a situation and then performed it for the other students. The kids were creative and all had great comedic potential!
The second day of camp all students got to choose a hat from a pile of different hats from sombreros to jester to policeman to little old lady hats and in between and become the character the hat represented! They then had were paired up and had to make up a story between each other and perform it in front of the whole group!
The third day we worked with different props such as canes, fake money, doctor’s bag, and so on. The students showed in mime what the prop was used for such as an old man walking with a cane. Then the twist was they had to come up with something that prop wasn’t used for such as a Darth Vader mask being used as a boat!
All in all the students gained a bit of insight on how to perform in front of one another by not turning the back to the audience and projecting so that the audience could hear them! These are two huge tips when it comes to acting and performance!
A Closer Look at Visual Arts Class Instructed by Julia Kinley
Camp Applause offered Art Classes to children. Each student was grouped accordingly to their age; individual attention was given to all the children. Each Camper enjoyed exploring the different Art Media. 3D Art making, Painting, Etching, and Drawing.
Children created Pinch Pots made out of clay. After maneuvering the clay into a pot, each child painted their design.
The Campers created a very special collaborative art project. Each child demonstrated their artistic skills while painting their own design on a Popsicle Stick. These sticks were then placed carefully onto a matte and framed.
Campers also created etchings. They had the opportunity to learn a little about printmaking.