Massapequa Students Keep Arts Skills Sharp In Summer Programs

MASSAPEQUA, NY — Over 450 Massapequa students have kept learning into the summer, participating in the Massapequa school district’s fine arts program to learn skills in drawing, music, painting and other performance and visual arts.

The program runs from July 6 to Aug. 7, with 452 students enrolled to fill 601 total seats, the district said. Offered in partnership with Nassau BOCES, program administrators say the district’s summer arts programs have only grown in recent years, with some students joining multiple camps.

“We have a lot of students doing multiple camps, many for the whole five weeks,” coordinator Jessica Wyman said. “The program continues to grow and we see more kids every year that spend the entire summer with us.”

The camps are broken down into art, music and theater, with students of all skill levels able to participate and develop the fine arts skills they might not have otherwise practiced over the summer.

In music camps, that practice includes band and orchestra lessons for students just trying to stay in-tune, supplemented by a one-week camp program that includes lessons in acoustic guitar, musical theory, rock orchestra and songwriting, while additional programs are offered for elementary-level musicians.

In arts camps, there’s a combination of the old school and the new: Wyman said almost half of the summer visual arts programs have moved digital to meet the interests of students, while the programs still teach students tried and true disciplines like drawing, painting and sculpture.

There are also new art classes this summer, like “virtual easel,” a program that teaches students to create on iPads and emphasizes the professional possibilities that could lie ahead for students interested in pursuing the arts as a career. On a more analog track, there’s also the pulp and paper camp, which teaches students to make their own paper using raw fibers and recycled materials, eventually turning that paper into things like lanterns, notepads and more.

Finally, if the saying goes that “all the world’s a stage,” Massapequa students are able to bring their talents to the world in a pair of two-week musical theater camps that teach acting, vocal and dance lessons as part of a musical theater production.

For the students, camp isn’t without a goal: each art group has an exhibition at the end of their camp, while music and theater students take part in a performance to close out the summer session.

The summer arts education is made possible through the support of 28 teachers, 41 student assistants and two college assistants, district officials said, many of whom were once arts and music participants themselves.