Summer camps create community opportunity, fine arts pipeline

Incoming East Carolina University freshman Taylor O’Neal is flowing through the pipeline of School of Art and Design (SOAD) Summer Camp to ECU college student.

O’Neal sat at a computer last week in SOAD professor Robbie Quinn’s digital fabrication class. The group created designs online they would develop to a 3-D print, vinyl cut, or other made craft. O’Neal is from the Columbus, Ohio area, where she attended Dublin Coffman High School and mosaic, a humanities program for high school juniors and seniors.

School of Art and Design teaching assistant professor Brian Culbertson works with Denver, North Carolina senior Jake Beasley, left, and Raleigh senior A.J. Keith in a digital photography class.

SOAD Summer Camp was a graduation gift from O’Neal’s parents. Already admitted to ECU as an art major, she learned about the camp from an email about things to do before fall semester begins.

“I’m trying a lot of things to see what I didn’t know,” O’Neal said of the classes offered, adding she’s typically not into computer-based art. “I love the printmaking class, and I love to draw.”

O’Neal was one of 56 students at the SOAD camp last week, and one of hundreds who will experience the excitement, rigor, and community offered by summer camps from the College of Fine Arts and Communcation.

The School of Music’s (SOM) Summer Band and Orchestra Camp welcomed middle and high school students also last week, and the School of Theatre and Dance (SOTD) has three camps lined up in July and August for a broad age range of students.

Jacob Crocker, a rising senior at Havelock High School, played trombone for his fourth year at the SOM band camp. He already has plans to attend ECU as a music education major, and his sister currently is a Pirate.

Crocker plays in “all the bands” in Havelock, and played in the advanced Gold Band at ECU’s camp this year. He said ECU gives him the opportunity to continue practicing his instrument during the summer months, and with new groups of band students.

“It’s the chance to play with a lot of different people you don’t know,” he said, noting he favors full band rehearsals during camp week. “You learn to play with a new ensemble every year.”

Students participate in full Purple Band rehearsal at the School of Music’s Summer Band and Orchestra Camp. Purple is one of four concert band opportunities for middle and high school student attendees.

Summer Band and Orchestra Camp has run for at least 25 years, and welcomed over 400 students this year, about a 60-40 split of high school to middle school students. Camp band directors, sectional leaders, and counselors are mainly teachers and band directors from elsewhere in North Carolina. Some are ECU alumni, and they all converge on A.J. Fletcher Music Center for a musical week with young students.

Matthew Pellas directs the bands at F.J. Carnage Middle School in Raleigh, and directed the Green Band at last week’s camp. During one morning’s full band rehearsal, he led with humor and a path through the band, so he could descend from the podium and speak right to students. Moving to the trombones, he told them to get “a little dirty” to achieve a sound he demonstrated with his voice, praising as they got it.

Sectional and musician ship classes round out the performance day for band, orchestra, and jazz students, with final concerts capping the week.

Art camp students also ended their week with a showcase, exhibiting their animation, ceramic and other projects at Gray Gallery, in Jenkins Fine Arts Center.

In just its second year, director and SOAD assistant director Daniel Kariko said the inspiration came from the Scholastic Art Day the school has hosted for several years, and demand from regional educators for a summer opportunity.

“It’s really rewarding,” he said. “In five days they build connections and relationships, and learn skills beyond the high schools.”

“We’re happy if a handful of these kids consider us” to attend ECU.

Registration is still open for the upcoming SOTD camps:

• Drama Camp for ages 8-12, on campus July 14-18 with a final performance of “Disney’s The Jungle Book KIDS”
• Jazz Dance Camp for ages 11-18, on campus July 28-31 led by ECU dance associate professor Tommi Galaska
• The Edge @ ECU, Musical Theatre Intensive for ages 12-18, on campus Aug. 3-9 with Broadway special guest Sierra Boggess