(a.k.a. The Craft Fairy / Wizard / Gnome)
As the Arts Director at Camp Augusta, you’d be responsible for managing the successful running of over 30 different art activities at our camp, helping staff develop their facilitation skills, and managing the systems, budgeting, and inventory for everything that goes into this domain.
While Camp Augusta has the ‘regular’ range of campy activities, such as tie-dye, felting, ceramics, and puppet-making, we also have many intensive arts, including blacksmithing, lampworking, lathe woodworking, and jewelry smithing. This arts coordinator role will end up knowing at least a little about each program area, and will work together with trained area leads – they don’t necessarily need to know how to do each craft specifically.
If you are excited to learn and live in a summer camp environment for a summer, take on a summer camp leadership job, teach arts and crafts to children, get all of the perks associated with being at camp, connect with inspiring people in an ethos-driven camp setting, and bring innovative ideas to a place where anything is possible… this might be the place for you.
Arts Director Skills & Qualities
- Love of Youth – Mentoring kiddos (and staff) in a safe, fun, and directed manner.
- Organized – Keeping all the arts stocked, organized, systematized, and orderly.
- Skilled Trainer – Oversee staff training for all arts clinics; training is purposeful and prepares staff well for teaching clinics, inviting collaboration and feedback into how each clinic is taught. Organizes ongoing staff training throughout the summer with the scheduler to continue the knowledge of arts throughout the community.
- Skilled Manager – Joins clinics and gives feedback in constructive and compassionate ways to help staff improve their facilitation and the clinics.
- Innovative – Sees further potential in existing activities – new methods and applications – and is able to take new visions and implement them thoroughly so they are regularly engaged with by campers.
- Holds Boundaries and Standards – Manages how camp community members interact with the craft shack and other arts clinic areas. Cleanliness and organization are maintained through solid and well-communicated processes.
- Wise Budgeter – Makes wise and orderly purchases to support the clinic domains
- Flexible and Friendly – When chaos happens (and it will) doesn’t get bogged down by clutter, choosing instead to celebrate the often messy process of creation at a summer camp.
- Community-Minded – A creator of optimism and energy in the community.
- Camp-Minded – Excitement to engage with the larger camp community to offer fun, memorable experiences even beyond the realm of the arts program (evening programs, story experiences, playstations, and more)
The Arts Director is a one-of-a-kind role at Camp Augusta and a true gift to the community. If ready this description gets your imagination going or has started you wondering what being the Craft Fairy/Wizard could look like for you, we urge you to reach out to us and learn more!
Arts Clinic Offerings
‘Classic’ Clinic Offerings:
Acrylic Pouring
Balloon Twisting
Batik
Candle Making
Clothing Alterations
Embroidery
Felting (needle, wet)
Glass Etching
Paper Marbling
Polymer Clay
Screen Printing
Sewing
Shibori Tie-Dye
Tie-Dye
Wire Jewelry
Wood Burning
Intensive Arts Offerings:
These are generally fine skill-related and complex. They often have their own area at camp and benefit from practice (often 2-hour clinics)
Blacksmithing
Ceramics (Slab, Wheel, and Glazing)
Drum Making
Glass Fusing
Jewelry Smithing
Lampworking
Wood Lathe
Leather Working
Stained Glass
Wood Carving
See our Activities Page to learn more about our various clinics!
A Day in the Life of the Arts Director
Every day brings on new excitement as the tasks you do reflect what clinics are being offered each day. Think of yourself as a coordinator behind the scenes, setting the table for SO MANY people to create on the daily. Here is a breakdown of the daily schedule so you can get an idea of what an average (or not so average) day at Augusta could look like for you!
Their typical days include:
7:30 – Setup – Prepare for the morning clinics and activities and manage the glass/ceramics kilns
8:00 – Breakfast – Fuel up for the big day!
8:45 – Clinic 1 – Check-in with clinic facilitators to get them going and then finish any more setup/management, including creative support with cabin acts or camper’s choice periods.
10:00 – Clinic 2 – Lead a clinic (in arts, or one of our 120+ others)!
11:15 – Cabin Activity time – Help a cabin decorate their cabin bird feeders, make chalk murals, or many more
12:15 – Lunch – Eat ALL the yummy foods!
1:00 – Rest Hour – Craft Fairy Time**
1:50 – Playstation – Support ‘playstation’ – a camper’s choice activity period and set up for clinics 3 & 4
3:00 – Snack – Popcorn, Watermelon, and Snack Magic!
3:30 – Clinic 3 – Craft Fairy Time**
4:45 – Clinic 4 – Lead a clinic
5:45 – Breakdown – Get all the materials in the shack for another day.
6:00 – Dinner – Grub up! You earned it!
7:40 – EP Prep – And help paint faces and costumes if that’s your jam.
7:00 – Evening Program – Support/ play in the EP or Craft Fairy Time if needed.
8:00-10:00 – KM Meeting & Evening Prep – Community meeting with warm and fuzzy sharings! Get a head start on any preparation for the following day/s, or help run a creative story experience!
What’s ‘Craft Fairy Time’?
As an art lover, you know that beauty is in the details. You’ll have unscheduled time each day for you to maintain and develop the Augustan arts with that detail-oriented touch! This time includes anything that goes towards supporting the arts domain, including…
- Jumping in to bring some direction and skill to clinics.
- Preparing, ordering, and maintaining supplies for clinics to run as efficiently as possible.
- Supporting staff in their clinic facilitation.
- Creating artsy props and decorations for other domains of camp
- Balancing and tracking the arts budget. (~$35k)
- Researching new crafty ideas to try in our activities, and testing them out to see how they work
- Checking in with the scheduler on clinic offerings and numbers
- Maintaining the overall beautification of the Craft Shack and other arts clinic areas throughout camp – this fosters a warm and inviting place for everyone to create and relax.
