SUMMER 2026!

CLICK ON A TITLE TO REGISTER FOR A CAMP

We’ve got LOTS of cool writing opportunities on the calendar this summer, including our first-ever FULL DAY CAMPS at Camp Truetimber, in collaboration with Open Space Education!

Other locations for our summer programming include Quarry (2707 West Cary Street) and Shop Two Three (1437 Hull Street) - and we’ve got virtual workshops, too. Be sure to note where your selections are taking place.

AGES 8-11

Open Space Education Morning Session, 9:30am-12:30pm

GIVE+TAKE: Nature-based Art 

Teaching Artists: Justice + Cecilia

Through hands-on activities we'll create art inspired by our walks through the enchanted forest at Camp Truetimber. We'll work collaboratively and individually on projects like making our own paintbrushes and paint from nature, experimenting with nature printing, and building sculptures from natural materials we collect along our walks. We'll engage our senses and connect with the natural world, fostering creativity, mindfulness, and a deeper connection to our environment.

• BRING LUNCH!

RYW Afternoon Session, 1-4pm

Let's Make a Mysterious Book

RYW Instructor: Bird

Symbols, codes, ciphers, cryptic rhymes... we'll be creating a collaborative book of mysteries and legends about Camp Truetimber in the afternoon session! Campers will write, observe, and invent—combining real discoveries from nature with secret symbols, coded messages, and mysteries only they can solve. By the end of the week, the group will publish their own imaginative field guide to the camp: part observer's journal, part mystery handbook, and entirely their creation.

Open Space Education Morning Session, 9:30am-12:30pm

MYCELIUM MAGIC + TREE TALK

Teaching Artists: Joy + Claudia

We'll discover the secret world of trees, both above ground and underground, by walking and playing in the enchanted forest at Camp Truetimber. By learning about how trees are connected to a vast interwoven network of mycelium in the soil, we'll get a better understanding of how trees communicate and take care of each other. We'll learn to identify specific trees in the forest and along the creek, and as we learn more about them and get to know them, they'll inspire our art.

• Bring lunch!

RYW Afternoon Session, 1-4pm

Genre Exploration with Nature as our Muse

RYW Instructor: Cat

In the afternoon camp at TrueTimber, we will focus on honing our creative writing skills by exploring different genres, all with the theme of nature front and center! From writing for performances, to poetry and fiction, this class will offer students a chance to create stories in multiple genres while taking our inspiration from nature and other writers. By reading work about the natural world and interacting with it ourselves at camp, we will write poems, stories, and more just like the greats before us!

AGES 12-15

Open Space Education Morning Session, 9:30am-12:30pm

NATURE ART INSTALLATION + PERFORMANCE

Teaching Artists: Joy + Claudia

The 20+ acres of enchanted forest at Camp Truetimber will be our blank canvas as we explore the history of the land and interact with its natural features. Our inspiration will guide us to create sculptural pieces that interact with the environment and craft performance pieces featuring wearable art made from nature. We'll work collaboratively and individually, exploring and creating along a 1 mile loop beside Grindell Creek.

• Bring lunch!

RYW Afternoon Session, 1-4:30pm

Writing for Performance

RYW Instructor: Cat

Have you ever wondered how to write a play or performance piece? This class will review every step of the process and teach students how to best write for an audience. Students will write based on the theme of nature and we will garner inspiration from the outdoors. We will learn how to write a script and give an end-of-the week show for our peers. This class is a guided step by step how-to of the performance art writing process.

Why try one kind of writing when you can sample them all? Whether you're an experienced writer or new to writing, we'll have an approachable workshop to try a bit of everything. 

In between, we'll refill our creativity with writing games to keep the fun going. 

What's better than writing? Writing AND art combined! And we're doing it in such a cool new spot: Shop Two Three!

Using drawings, tarot/oracle cards, clay, and so much more, we'll use visual references and our own creations to inspire our writing. You'll leave this camp with both written and visual portfolio pieces to bring home. 

AGES 15-18

Need a real challenge? What about experimenting with writing forms that you don't see every day? Maybe dabble in epistolary fiction. Or perhaps write entire poems by diagramming sentences! By the end of the camp, we'll become experts at the strange and unusual...and our writing all the better for it!