В Вермонте открылся первый детский лагерь «Cute Camp», где юные художники создают уникальные игрушки и музыкальные инструменты

NORTH BENNINGTON — At Vermont Arts Exchange’s inaugural Cute Camp this week, “cute” comes in all shapes, sizes, and species – sometimes it looks like a button, sometimes it rattles, sometimes it's colorful, and sometimes it has a slightly creepy grin. Run by Vermont Arts Exchange Teaching Artists Madalyn Olson and Rhonda Ratray, the camp splits its days in two sessions. Olson leads the morning session, while Ratray takes over in the afternoon. Together, with help from their daughters, they’ve turned a studio in North Bennington into a small factory of kid-inspired treasures. Over the course of the week, campers have hand-built ceramic shakers that will rattle once they come out of the kiln, created “shrinky” keychains, rolled and shaped air-dry clay beads to make jewelry like bracelets or necklaces, and tried their hands at sewing tiny stuffed "Fugler-like" creatures that were inspired by Olson’s youngest daughter – an avid sewer. On Thursday morning, tables were crowded with paint markers, tiny beads, and half-finished sculptures as campers carefully added color to their work. Olson explained that the ceramic projects are doing double-duty – they’re fun, but they’re also a workout for young hands and imaginations. “You’re learning a lot of great things when you’re using ceramics because it’s a ton of fine and gross motor development,” Olson said, indicating some of the very detailed creations that the campers wedged and shaped. “They had to do a design first, and then follow through with it, and every single one of them made it happen.” Inside each clay creation – called clay shakers – is a handful of small clay balls, dried with a heat gun, wrapped in paper towel, and sealed between two pinch pots. When the pieces are fired, the paper burns away and the balls stay loose inside – effectively turning the sculptures into adorable and wacky musical instruments. One camper, reflecting on the week, said Cute Camp quickly became what she looked forward to most each morning, “Cute camp was really fun, and it always got me up in the morning,” she said. “That’s why I kept moving in the early morning.” For Olson, the real magic of Cute Camp is how open-ended the idea of “cute” can be. On one table, there are tidy, realistic animals. On another, lopsided monsters with button eyes and big teeth and even bigger personalities. “Here, you can kind of figure out what ‘cute’ means to you,” Olson laughed. “Some people think creepy cute is cute. Some people think realistic animals are cute. And, it really opens up this whole range of possibilities.” Looking around at the finished shakers, keychains, beads, and soft sculptures, Olson said that what tied the week together wasn’t any single project, but the individuality behind each piece that was created by the campers. “How do you feel about that word? What is it to you? I think everybody made super individualized creations, and I was just very impressed with that,” she said. At Cute Camp, it turns out “cute” isn’t a style so much as an invitation – for kids to decide for themselves what their art can be.