Summer’s Coming! — Thingamajigs Summer Camp

In the next few weeks leading up to the end of the school year for many, I’m going to be posting about opportunities for kids to experience the arts in fun ways over the summer. Although many of these posts will refer to events, camps, and classes that are likely in an area other than yours, there may be similar opportunities in your area.

I got an email this week about a camp that I think sounds fantastic. It’s called Thingamajigs Summer Camp. Is that a cool name, or what? It’s run by Thingamajigs, an organization in Oakland, California, dedicated to alternative arts exploration, making music from found objects, creating unique tuning systems, and being super creative in the process!

They also have an arts education program for kids from kindergarten to eighth grade, called Thingamakids (another cool name!) They do education and outreach, spreading the joy of music and creativity.

The camp for older kids sounds fascinating to me. It’s called The Art and Science of Experimentation, and blends music and science. What a great combination

Quoting from their website:

“Through interactive workshops incorporating music, movement, visual art and science, campers will gain a unique and well-rounded experience in creativity, collaboration and experimentation.

In each camp children create their own unique and engaging instruments out of recycled materials and random treasures found in places like the beach, forests, and even their own recycling bins.”

You can find out more at the camp’s page on the Thingamajigs website.

If you’re nowhere near Oakland, California, you might find something similar in your own area — check around!

In the meantime, here are a couple of links to inspire you to create musical instruments out of found objects so you can have your own mini-camp.

Here’s a post from the blog Making Multicultural Music: sharing diversity through the arts that shows how to make 14 musical instruments from around the world!

Here’s a post from Earth911, with links to several groups or organizations that recycle all kinds of things into musical instruments.

And if you aren’t inspired enough already, here’s a link to an article and a video trailer about an amazing orchestra of kids that creates its instruments from trash found in a garbage dump: Orquestra de Reciclados de Cateura — the Recycled Orchestra (aka Landfill Harmonic).