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Chicago Troupe Leads Arts Camp

Rehearsal for the "Flying Squirrels" at the WCIAC.

The Core Project Chicago, an interdisciplinary arts company, is leading a week-long arts camp at the West Central Illinois Arts Center in Macomb. The camp is open to youth in grades 7-12. They group is known as the “Flying Squirrels.”

Grace Nessen-Gilligan lives in the Chicago suburbs. She is visiting a friend in Macomb and decided to take part.

She is preparing a script that combines elements from her own life and her talent playing the flute. She is also putting some of the skills she is learning to work in the script.

She says, “I'm learning a lot about what kinds of art you can do. Like, we learned about soundscapes today and how to create a scene with only sounds. And that was really fun and it was really cool to learn that you could do that.”
 
Frazier Smith is a principal artist with Core Project Chicago. He says the use of sound is just one of the new skills the children are learning.

He says, “We're going to do a dance class. And regardless of whether or not they consider themselves dancers, dance incorporates logical thinking, linguistic thought, interpersonal relationships. All these things are happening in one dance class.”

Amanda Walker is the project manager for Core Project Chicago. She says the theme for the camp is “Timeless Maps.”

She says, “We said take that map and make it into a different art form...And so we have flute-playing and we have monologues and we have a video.”

The campers are using the skills they are learning to create a program. They will perform Friday night, July 13th,at 7:30 and Saturday, July 14th, at 4 p.m.. Both performances are at the West Central Illinois Arts Center.