Summer, art and fun at Art Museum of SETX
Published 10:34 am Tuesday, July 3, 2018
- Children, parents and staff gather Friday at the end of the weeklong Art Ventures summer camp at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. (Lorenzo Salinas/The News)
By Lorenzo Salinas
Art is life and life is filled with all kinds of artistic opportunities. Just ask the kids at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas.
Children capped off a weeklong art intensive at the Art Museum in Beaumont on Friday. The program was held under the museum’s Art Ventures initiative.
Summer Art Ventures is five-day art program and summer camp aimed at providing children a high-quality and intensive education in the arts. The classes are taught by different art instructors, many of whom are local artists themselves.
Gonzalo Alvarez was one of the volunteer teachers at the AMSET program. He is a local illustrator, game designer and creative director.
“As an illustrator, I chose programs based on comic art, pixel art and game art,” Alvarez said.
In his presentation to parents and students, he commented on the graphic nature of video game and comics art.
“The (kids) made comic strips to teach them storytelling,” Alvarez said. “They came up with some awesome stuff.”
He called both the kids and their artwork inspirational, and thanked them for a great job.
Some of Brady Bellah’s artwork is on display after completing the weeklong Art Ventures camp at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. (Lorenzo Salinas/The News)
The director of the camp, Jennifer Thompson, highlighted the unique opportunity such a camp gives the children.
“This gives them experience with a wide variety of art media,” she said. “This class in particular was devoted to comics art, character work and pixel art.”
Thompson also pointed out the different lens through which young people could express their creativity.
“Kids have this enthusiasm that’s so original and (that) allows them to have such a new viewpoint,” she said.
Brady Bellah came from The Woodlands to spend some of his summer vacation with his grandparents, Linda and Joe Domino — and also to participate in Art Ventures.
Bellah’s artwork on Friday focused on sequential art, space and some Mexican inspirations from the Folk Art section of the museum.
Bellah said his favorite part of camp was creating the comics art.
His cousin, Frankie Domino, said he preferred making pixel art.
Left to right: Frankie Domino (blue), Joe Domino, Linda Domino and Brady Bellah (blue) gather for the conclusion of the Art Ventures weeklong camp Friday at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. (Lorenzo Salinas/The News)
AMSET’s summer camps are available to children ages 5 to 15. They’re broken up into three age groups: 5 to 7, 8 to 11 and 12 to 15. Half-day and weeklong courses are offered with age-appropriate art activities for each.
Parents could register their children by filling out a registration form and turning it in to the museum. They could call AMSET at 409-832-3432 or stop by for more information.
Each summer camp has its own theme. Illustration, comics and pixel art were the themes for the week of June 25.
