By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Managing Editor
Editor’s note: This is the second article in a two-part series about the 20th anniversary of the Cranbury Arts Council’s Art and Technology Camp.
CRANBURY — The 20th year of the Cranbury Arts Council’s Art and Technology Camp came to a close on Friday with an underwater robotics demonstration, a concert, a play and a jewelry sale among other exhibits of what campers accomplished this summer.
While most of the action took place in the classrooms at Cranbury School, some of it happened in the backyard of the Hebert family. The Heberts loaned their in-ground swimming pool to the “Underwater Robotics” campers who designed and built SeaPerch robots. The campers tested their robots in the pool to see how they function and took part in ring grabbing and obstacle maneuvering challenges to see how their robots perform.
Tom Stinson, Cranbury School’s industrial arts teacher, taught the one-week camp from July 20-24.
Avery Gordon, 10, of Cranbury, said he learned a lot about waterproofing, weight distribution, buoyancy and soldering.
Not only Cranbury students attend the camp. Ilya, Belinda and Leah Lichtenfeld, 10-year-old triplets from Robbinsville, have been campers for the past three years. This year, Ilya and Belinda took pastels and Leah took knitting.
“It was really fun,” Ilya and Belinda said at the same time.
Hannah Bobchin, 11, of Cranbury, also took the pastel camp.
“I took the class because I like drawing and it inspires me to do different things,” she said. “Pastels are my very favorite type of art.”
While the campers have fun, so do the camp instructors. Scott Grimaldi, who has been instructing the “Rockin’ Jammin’ Ensemble” for the past 20 years, is always surprised by the talented musicians that join him over the summer. Together they spend two weeks exploring repertoire from the genres of rock, pop and jazz and then give a final performance of four songs. This year the ensemble performed “Oye Como Va,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Lava” and “All About That Bass.”
Noor Bhatia and Jonathan Chen played alto saxophones. Flynn Kinney, Adam MacMillan, James Novak and Will Novak played trumpets. Peter Gittings played the trombone. Andrew Ciardella played both the guitar and ukulele and Augustine George and Ben McEachen were on percussion. Shannon Addonizio, a former camper and student of Mr. Grimaldi, served as musical assistant.
Ms. Addonizio said, “They’ve been a great group of kids to work with. It’s nice to see young kids be so excited about music.”
Mr. Grimaldi said he hopes the members of the ensemble take away a greater appreciation of different genres of music, the ability to perform a solo and better improvisation skills.
Cranbury School vocal music teacher Ashley DeAntonio helped her campers bring Mark Twain’s “A Fable” to life. They made costumes and props and ended their week by giving a performance to family and friends.
Ms. DeAntonio said her focus is to have the children in grades 1-2 practice their public speaking while learning about set design, costume design, lighting and all of the imagination that goes into a theatrical performance.
In Sarah Schectel’s “Jewelry Making and Design” camp, students in grades 4-9 learned patience, time management and what was needed to design special types of jewelry such as paper beads, bottle cap necklaces and key chains. During the last day of camp, they also put their marketing skills to the test by designing a “jewelry store” complete with advertising so they could sell the wares they made to the public.
Professional costume designer Michelle Ferranti taught both “Sewing Seminar” and “Fabric Crafts,” giving campers the opportunity to use sewing machines to create aprons, tote bags, pajama bottoms, and summer tops. Advanced students made patchwork bags.
“I hope that they get out of this that things don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful,” Ms. Ferranti said.
She also said she wants them to take pride in their work and to know that items don’t just come from store shelves.
“They are made by people like them, sometimes by children, in different parts of the world,” she said.
Many valuable lessons are learned throughout the summer at the camp and both campers and instructors can’t wait for next year, which will be the first year of the third decade of the Cranbury Arts Council’s Art and Technology Camp.
The camp is nonprofit and offers full-day and half-day programs for one to four weeks. The camp is fully air-conditioned and all programs take place at Cranbury School.
For more information, visit www.cranburyartscouncil.org.
