It was a week of minstrels, dragons and magical happenings at the Lyceum as five young artists joined us for our Contemporary Fairy Tales Inspire Great Art summer camp. Using some truly beautiful contemporary fairy tales as their inspiration they made dragon collages on canvas, sculpey clay landscapes and painted fans.

We were impressed by the students‘ thoughtful responses to the stories told. One particularly memorable conversation found them discussing whether it would be better to face a demon or be condemned to death. Milo said, “There’s nothing worse than being dead.” Everyone else agreed.

We felt blessed this week with the freedom (and staff!) to be able to adapt our program to meet the needs of the students involved. This meant that there was extra time for Peppy to complete a very detailed work of art and revisit the much-loved story Dove Isabeau at Leo’s request.

Each day we also checked the Lyceum’s butterfly tent. As the week progressed we watched butterflies hatch from cocoons and spread their wings. On the last day, we set them free in the Lyceum’s garden – a magical ending to a magical week.

We’re going to be upfront with you. Although we promised to look into the work of five author-illustrators during this camp, the energy the students put into their art projects meant that we only had time for four. But they were an amazing four! Over the course of the week we looked at the work of Oliver Jeffers, Phoebe Gilman, Mo Willems and Audrey and Don Woods. Each day we worked on an art project inspired by the author-illustrator we studied. From canvas board collages inspired by Oliver Jeffers stick characters to shrink art necklaces featuring Mo Willems’ famous pigeon, the whimsical artwork created in this camp knocked our socks off.

This was a very kind group. We ere struck by their empathy for the characters in the stories. When we asked whether the witch in Heckedy Peg should die, Sofia said, “No. She won’t do it again.”

We spent time each day talking about the defining characteristics of each author’s work. We loved how, by the end of the week, we could say, “Oliver Jeffers” and the students would instantly say, “The one who does stick legs”. On the last day of class we presented books to the students in random order, asking them which author-illustrator created them. They guessed every one correctly, giving the author’s first and last names!

Perhaps the lasting contribution of the authors we studied this week was most accurately summed up by Gabriel who said, “I’m going to tell my stuffies who talk to me when it’s night time that Phoebe Gilman is dead, but we still have her books.”