Inside the classrooms of the Waseca Art Center (WAC) this week, the usual high-energy noise of summer break was replaced by a quiet, focused hum of determination. Leaning over their workspaces, young artists put the final brushstrokes on watercolor galaxies, assembled miniature fairy houses, and carved intricate designs into clay.
The annual summer art camp, which ran from June 23 to June 26, brought together 13 local youth for four days of intensive, hands-on artistic exploration.
For the art center, the program is a cherished tradition dating back to 2010. While participation has fluctuated over the years due to growing competition from other regional summer camps, the passion of the instructors and organizers remains entirely unchanged.
“We’ve been offering this program for many years,” said Christy Easton, WAC’s Educational and Programming Director.
To ensure individualized instruction, this year’s camp split the students into three age-targeted groups. Kindergarten through third-grade students were taught by Karen Krause; fourth through sixth graders were guided by Caitlin Roberts; and seventh through twelfth graders were led by Missy Donner.
For the instructors, the camp is a rare opportunity to share specialized techniques that students rarely encounter in a standard school curriculum.
Missy Donner, who has taught at the camp for five years and teaches art full-time at a charter school in Owatonna, brought her passion for clay, fiber arts, and mixed media to an eager youth ready to create. “I love turning discarded stuff into beautiful art,” Donner said, reflecting on her decade-long teaching career. “I started with many of these artists when they were just ‘Littles.’ It’s incredible to see how they’ve grown.”
Under Donner’s guidance, the older students took on a wide array of challenging projects. They practiced sgraffito—a technique where a design is scraped into a slip-covered clay block to reveal a contrasting color underneath—and painted complex pieces based on a series of three creative prompts, including “doorways.” Simply put, they are visually striking pieces worthy of display.
Meanwhile, Caitlin Roberts guided the middle-grade students. Roberts, who began her journey at the camp three years ago as an assistant to Krause, also teaches specialized art classes at WAC. Her curriculum focused on tactile mixed-media projects.
“I love to bring in mixed media like painting, digital drawing, and sculptures when I’m teaching,” Roberts said. “If I can figure out how to make it, I’ll figure out how to teach it.”
Under her instruction, the middle-grade students crafted custom trinket trays using bakeable clay, designed intricate dollhouses, and carved clay coasters destined for the art center’s kiln.
For the young artists, the camp offered uninterrupted hours to focus entirely on their craft.
Stella, an eighth grader at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton (JWP) schools, worked diligently on a vibrant galaxy watercolor painting on Friday morning. Though her mother surprised her with the camp registration, Stella was incredibly glad to be there.
“It’s one of my favorite subjects in school,” she said, noting that she enjoyed learning printing, canvas painting, and creating a detailed eye design for her sgraffito project.
Nearby, Taylor, a seasoned camp veteran who has attended for the past five years, worked on a surrealist piece featuring a “galaxy heart” twisted around dark, spooky vines. “The art summer camp keeps creativity alive during the summer break; that is always a win.”
While the camp was a resounding success for the students who attended, organizers are already looking at ways to expand their reach for next year. With so many regional summer activities competing for families’ attention, there is a collective push to bolster marketing and outreach efforts to bring attendance numbers back to historic highs.
“We need to get the word out more,” Donner noted, emphasizing the importance of letting local families know about the unique hands-on opportunities WAC provides.
