Students shows off their art skills at Maple Valley Art Camp

The camp serves to provide a wide sampling of artworks for the kids to work on and try out. This year included a trip to the Nome Schoolhouse, famed for its wool-weaving facilities, and there they were able to learn the art of felting – which is to say, making artwork out of felt.

“You can make slippers, they do a lot of little animals,” Tichy said.

The rest of the week saw the kids remain closer to home, occupying a park in Tower City, where they worked on tie-dying t-shirts, doing beautiful screen prints and more, all of which ultimately culminated in a showcase at the end of the week where children and parents alike could take pride in what they’ve done and learned.

“We like to give kids a little taste of everything. Some kids say ‘oh, I’m no good at art’ or this or that,” Tichy said. “We did a fun activity with blind contour drawing … the first thing to be able to draw is being able to see. Anybody can draw if they can see. So then we did these blind contour drawings … they can’t look at their paper, they’re drawing with white oil pastel on watercolor paper … then they watercolor over the top.”

There’s many great life lessons to be learned in the study of art, and Tichy believes in the inherent creative spark that all people possess – a spark she hopes to nurture in young people.

“I feel badly when kids say ‘I’m not creative’. Maybe you don’t like to draw necessarily, but that clay really draws you,” She said.

This year’s camp had 45 participants. At its height, they had some 60 participants, back in 2019 and before COVID-19. Participants come from all over the region, from Oriska to Valley City.

The camp is funded with support from Maple Valley Schools, Buffalo Community Center, Tower City Community Club, and Tower City Park Board and Tichy wanted to express her gratitude to these entities and also individuals who help make the camp possible, fellow organizers Meridee Stowman, Sonja Jorgensen and Amanda Starr. Starr is the new art teacher for Maple Valley Schools.

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