Campers create their costume designs.

Kids will be so excited about our fall break camps, it will be spooky

Camps are not just for summer! Oklahoma Contemporary has school-break camps for all seasons, and with Halloween and Thanksgiving just over the horizon, fall is the perfect time for the 5- to 12-year-olds in your life to make costumes, create creepy crafts and even cultivate autumnal plants and herbs. Send your kiddos to Camp Contemporary for fall break, Oct. 11-15, and they’ll come away with all kinds of cool things for the cooler season.

This fall, Camp Contemporary is offering four in-person camps and one via Zoom, full of fun activities that take inspiration from our current and upcoming exhibitions, like the video game-themed Open World, which opens Oct. 21.

For the safety of everyone in our camps, all staff, visitors and students (vaccinated or unvaccinated) over the age of 2 should wear masks while inside our facilities. Please refrain from visiting if you have any symptoms or may have been exposed to COVID-19.

Five- and 6-year-olds get Arcade Kids, an Open World-inspired camp in which campers will design costumes based on their favorite video game characters. But costumes are just the beginning.

“They're going to transform their studio into a video game field with costumes and decorations and all that fun stuff,” said Christine Gibson, manager of Youth and Family Programs. “And I'm sure there will be some retro video games in there that parents will appreciate.”

Open World-inspired costume creation is also on tap for kids on the other end of the trick-or-treating age group. Cosplay Costume Design, for kids 10 to 12, is perfect for more advanced abilities and for young gaming enthusiasts who want to learn how to create their own costumes for Halloween parties or, if they’re lucky, comic cons.

“It is thinking about costuming and character design, but taking it to the next level,” Gibson said. “We have a very fantastic instructor, Dayna Brown, and she'll be working with the kids to make their own costume and then doing their runway show on Friday.”

A figure is drawn on an electronic device.

Campers can create their own video game characters.

The next Open World-themed camp will take place in cyberspace – well, via Zoom. Video Game Character Design helps 7- to -9-year-olds create their own video game characters.

“Yes, that will be over Zoom, but they will be using old-school materials,” Gibson said. “So, if kids choose to do that camp, they'll get an art kit and they'll use it at their home. They’ll learn how to create a storyline for their character. They’ll think about what their game world looks like and build off of that.”

Less video game-centric but perfect for the season is Spooky Shadow Show, in which campers aged 7 to 9 will create a full play based on their puppet creations.

“Halloween is my favorite, and I know this one is going to be a hit with campers,” Gibson said. “The instructor, B.C. Summers, will be teaching kids how to create shadow puppets, and then they’ll create a storyline together. It all comes together when they do the show for their family and friends on Friday.”

Two figures crouch on the floor to examine dyed cloth.

Colors extracted from our Art Garden get used for dyeing cloth in art projects.

The final camp of the season is Nature Made, designed for the aspiring young gardener. A fully outdoorsy activity in Oklahoma Contemporary’s Art Garden, Gibson said Nature Made is a chance to grow things that can later be used to create dyes or as materials for future artworks.

“This is a new camp for us, focused on our garden and switching it over to our fall foliage,” she said. “So the kids will get their hands dirty in actual dirt, help plant the garden for the fall and also make some art elements that will stay in the garden, which will be adorable. And then, obviously, these are things that they can make for their garden at home.”

Gibson said Camp Contemporary’s fall break camps come at just the right time of year for a surge of creativity. After all, a homemade costume or project is always a greater source of pride than something store-bought.

“This is a great way to spend fall break,” Gibson said. “It comes at a great time — just before Halloween — when the coolest thing to do is make something of your own, whether it’s a costume or something you cultivated in our garden.”