Summer camp possibilities just got a lot more interesting. Midland art teacher Bret Reilly, who stirs up creative excitement with every endeavor —the Annual Student Art Exhibition, a red carpet event now in its third year, and the Midland Art Club, an immensely popular after-school art program that keeps rising artists busy four days a week — is extending the school year. He’s offering sculpture boot camp this summer at Wainwright House.

 

 

By Robin Jovanovich

Summer camp possibilities just got a lot more interesting. Midland art teacher Bret Reilly, who stirs up creative excitement with every endeavor —the Annual Student Art Exhibition, a red carpet event now in its third year, and the Midland Art Club, an immensely popular after-school art program that keeps rising artists busy four days a week — is extending the school year. He’s offering sculpture boot camp this summer at Wainwright House.

 

“Wainwright is the perfect backdrop,” says Mr. Reilly, showing us around the holistic learning center on the water. “I want to show kids how sculptors like Rodin were inspired by their environment. They’ll be sculpting under the tent outdoors. I’ll have them working in papier-mâche; they’re going to be building armature, adding muscle and skin.” (He’s such a mesmerizing individual that we soon found ourselves asking if adults could sign up too.)

 

Mr. Reilly says he’s both an art teacher and a teaching artist. “I teach school 180 days a year, but it’s that teaching that gives me the freedom to sculpt.” He plans on bringing at least one of his recent sculptures to camp as a model. No doubt he’ll inspire a whole new generation.

 

Mr. Reilly’s Sculpture Boot Camp will run four weeks. Students can sign up for one or more one-week sessions. Visit sculpturebootcamp.com.