.png)
The 2022 Honeywell Summer Arts Camps have officially begun and for the first time since 2019, all are offered at full scale. A broad range of camps in both visual arts and theater offer something for everyone and every age. Lead sponsorship for the camps is provided by Halderman Farm Management with additional support provided by the Community Foundation of Wabash County.
Visual arts camps include a S.T.E.A.M. camp for grades K-1; printmaking and fabric dying for grades 2-4, watercolor and shrinky dink creation for grades 5-6; and sketching and skill drills for grades 7-12. Each camp is a week long and meets weekdays from 9 am - 12 pm.
Three different theater camps will each stage a musical. Grades 1-4 will perform The Pajama Party, a show about the joys of bedtime; grades 5-8 will perform Mary Poppins Jr., featuring everyone’s favorite English nanny; and grades 9-12 will perform the much-anticipated Matilda the Musical, the hit Broadway show based on Roald Dahl’s story about the power of imagination and a girl who dreams of a better life. Matilda was planned for the summer of 2020 but delayed due to COVID. Rehearsals run weekdays from June 6 – 15 for The Pajama Party and weekdays from June 6 - 24 for Mary Poppins Jr. and Matilda.
Honeywell camps strive to provide enriching arts experiences that students and families look forward to each year. The visual arts camps explore a range of mediums such as building mosaics, hammering flower-print cards, or learning the Japanese dying technique of Shibori.
“Honeywell camps provide focused time to do projects that might be too involved to do in school,” says Carolyn Stoner, Honeywell’s Director of Arts. “Our goal is to offer an elevated arts experience.”
The theater camps offer an elevated experience as well, with fully staged productions that perform in Honeywell’s state-of-the-art Ford Theater. Students work with the same stage crew that runs the touring Broadway shows that come to Honeywell, such as Blue Man Group and An American in Paris. “Being able to perform in the Ford Theater is about as professional as you can get,” says Jessica Keffaber, Honeywell’s Education Media Manager and director of Matilda. “We’re doing professional lighting, we’re doing professional sound, and giving students as close to a professional experience as we can.”
For students who aspire for a career on the stage and even those who don’t, performing at the Ford Theater is nothing short of magical. “It’s such a nice theater,” says Annie Cole, a Wabash High School senior who has been performing in the Honeywell’s summer theater camps since she was in 3rd grade. “It’s just crazy that our town that is so small has this incredible space we get to use.”
“The arts are so important,” Keffaber says. “For some of my participating students, this is what they live for. Theater is their thing and this gives them an opportunity to do what they love.”
Arts education has long been touted as an essential building block for success in adulthood and is especially impactful for at-risk youth. A recent study of at-risk youth found those with arts education had better academic outcomes, higher career goals, and were more civically engaged than those without. For any student who might not have found their passion in academics or sports, the arts make a critical impact, building confidence and resilience, honing the muscle that helps us persist in learning something new even if it’s initially hard.
Cole credits summer theater with making her a more confident, outgoing person. “When I first started, it was a good way to meet new people. I am an incredibly shy person. It really helped me become more of myself, figure out who I am, and be confident,” she says.
The multi-talented Cole will head to Butler in the fall and plans to study actuarial science. “I’m a big math person,” she says. But she and her future roommate, also a theater-lover, have already decided they’ll attend all the shows at Butler and audition for any they can. You can watch her onstage this summer before she leaves. Cole and her peers have been waiting to perform Matilda for 3 years, so it’s sure to be a passion-filled performance.
The Pajama Party performance will take place June 15 at 5:30 p.m. in Legacy Hall at the Honeywell Center. Productions of Mary Poppins Jr. and Matilda will take place at the Ford Theater at 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. respectively, on June 24 and 25. You can find more information about all of the summer camps as well as the theater camp performances at www.honeywellarts.org.
Visual arts camps:
S.T.E.A.M (Grades K-1) - June 13 - 17 and June 20 - 24
Printmaking and Fabric Dying (Grades 2-4) - June 13 - 17 and June 20 - 24
Watercolor and Shrinky Dink (Grades 5-6) - June 20 - 24
Sketch and Portrait Exploration (Grades 7-12) - June 6 - 10
Theater Camp Performances:
The Pajama Party (Grades 1-4) - June 15 at 5:30 p.m.
Honeywell Center – Legacy Hall
Mary Poppins Jr. (Grades 5-8) - June 24 & 25 at 5:00 p.m.
Honeywell Center - Ford Theater
Matilda the Musical (Grades 9-12) - June 24 & 25 at 7:30 p.m.
June 26 at 2:00 p.m.
Honeywell Center - Ford Theater