Teaching Cartooning at the International Music Camp

Between June 22nd and the 28th I taught a Cartooning class at the International Music Camp held at the Peace Gardens here in North Dakota…

It was a great experience to be a part of this big event.  I believe that there are something like six class sessions held throughout the summer, each session being a week long.  I taught during the last and busiest session.  The week was incredibly busy and jammed fully of activities.

My class had seventeen teens in it ranging in age from 13 to 16 if I remember correctly.  They had a lot of energy!  Each day we had five classes.  The first one started at 8:30am and the last one ended at 8:00pm.  My class took it on like champs!  We faculty also had meetings and had to set up our classes in between the periods.  So I think I had more like a 14-hour day each day.

It was my first year teaching at the IMC.  I have done a little teaching previously, but this was the longest stint and definitely the busiest!  Not sure if I would do it again.  Like I’ve told most people that have asked, “Wait to ask me about around November.”

Teaching art at a music camp was a lot of fun though.  So much music all the time!  Crowds would just start singing.  Great music coming from practice halls as you walked by.  And the concerts were awesome!   Plus, as one of only 3 art teachers there, all these incredibly talented musicians were very interested in hearing what we few art teachers do.

I made sure to challenge my students each day because frankly, they were quite talented and really wanted to work hard.

This is the Cushman building where I taught my classes:

During the week, the class would place their work up on the peg boards around the room to show off their work.  They filled up pretty fast:

One of the nights during the week, there was a student music recital/talent show.  Traditionally, the art students from the Cartooning class uses sidewalk chalk on the walkways in front of the Burdick building where it is held.  We kept up with tradition:

Here’s a better look at the building outside:

And here’s the amazing interior:

As you walk around the camp, many times you’ll come across small little cabins like these. These are used for practice for any number of musicians.  It was really cool to walk by these as so many students and faculty were practicing:

I wanted to show this as well.  The sculpting class had a lot of fun coming up with huge creatures and hanging them randomly around the camp.  Here’s one near the dining hall:

Lastly, I wanted to show off the Alme Centre.  This is where my class, the painting class, and the sculpting class showed off their work at the end of the week:

And here is some of the work that my students showed off.  I must say that I was very impressed with them:

Again, I have to say that these students really impressed me.  And the camp itself is run really well.  It was a pleasure to be a part of it all.

In my next post (or maybe 2 or 3), I will be posting photos of my tour of the Peace Gardens themselves – Amazingly Beautiful!

Stay Tuned!

***For more information on the International Music Camp, including both music and art classes, check out their Website***