A five-year-old proudly discovers that red and white make pink. Another child learns how to cross a stage without turning their back to the audience. Across the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, those small moments become the building blocks of confidence, creativity, and curiosity.
For hundreds of children each summer, the Fine Arts Center’s camps offer more than art lessons. They introduce young people to professional theater, museum collections, and creative experiences that many encounter for the first time.
The camps, for students 5-17, “can create a lifelong partnership with the school,” says Sammie Joe Kinnett, Education Manager for the Fine Arts Center.
That experience is unusual. Few summer programs combine a professional theater company and an accredited art museum under one roof. At the Fine Arts Center, students can move from a museum gallery to a theater stage in the same day, learning from working artists and arts professionals in authentic creative spaces.
When Kinnett joined the Fine Arts Center in 2024, he saw an opportunity to expand access. The program grew from six camps to 25 in its first year, and a new grant now helps provide scholarships so more families can participate.
“It’s not just the breadth of the offerings,” Kinnett says, “It’s the financial accessibility to families to give their children an unforgettable summer that make us proud.”
Kinnett is in on the ground floor, teaching the popular Budding Thespians camp course for kids 5-7. Campers learn stage directions through games like Simon Says, tour the theater, explore the costume and scene shops, and discover how every role contributes to a production.
Just as important, they learn to tell stories.
Fostering a healthy imagination sharpens the mind and builds the abstract thinking that can help young people in school and in their later careers.
“You see them make deeper connections in how they organize,” Kinnett says, “They also learn through sharing their works with others.”
Away from the stage, the Budding Artists camp allows students to experiment with painting, sculpture, self-portraits, landscapes, and mixed media while learning to develop an idea and see it through from concept to finished work.
For Kinnett, the smallest moments often leave the biggest impression.
“One little girl today came up to me because she wanted to share the simple joy of learning how red and white can be mixed together to make pink and how blue and yellow make green,” he says. “The joy on her face in just these discoveries—you see the beauty of beginning experiences of creating and it reminds all of us of what art did for us and can do for them.”
As campers grow, so do the opportunities.
Children ages 8 to 10 move from role play to choreographed stage combat in Swords & Shields, where they safely learn theatrical sword fighting and movement. Older students can dive into collaborative storytelling through Tabletop Hero’s Guild, a “Dungeons & Dragons”-inspired camp that emphasizes character development, teamwork, and narrative design.
The Comic Book Creator camp may be a surprise, Kinnett says, “It’s less about drawing specific characters and more about how to plot out your story—that skill is a missing element for many who try to create them.”
Kinnett sees real growth in students each summer, as they use the camps as a launchpad to develop their skills throughout the school year.
“What excites me is how we truly offer something for everyone,” he says. “Kids have a look on their face at the camp they choose that says, ‘That’s for me.’ By the end, they often find a real passion. … We truly want to be that spark in a lifetime of artistic enjoyment.”
