Summer Camps at the Intersection of Art & Nature 2025
Our 2025 summer camps are coming soon. To be notified when registration becomes available, email Jeremy Stepien at jstepien@lyndensculpturegarden.org
Lynden’s art and nature camps for children aged 4 to 15 years integrate our collection of monumental outdoor sculpture and temporary installations with the natural ecology of our hidden landscapes and unique habitats. Led by artists, naturalists, and art educators, the camps explore the intersection of art and nature through collaborative inquiry and hands-on artmaking, using all of Lynden's 40 acres to create a joyful, all-senses-engaged outdoor experience.
Camps are organized around themes that investigate our relationship to nature and enable us to learn through making. Each camp introduces a range of imaginative experiences, materials, and tools. Working on projects individually and as a team, we'll be recording our discoveries in prints, collages, and sculptures. Whether we are watching monarch butterflies emerge from their chrysalises or building rafts to explore the ponds, digging in the vegetable garden or carving with handmade knives, our focus is on cultivating creativity and an appreciation of process.
Join us for a summer of art and nature!
Become a member at the family level today to receive a 20% discount on camp fees (you may also add a membership during the camp registration process).
To preview a PDF of the registration form, click here. Please note: Space in each camp is limited and we anticipate they will fill quickly. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration does not guarantee admission. Once we receive your completed registration form, we will follow up via e-mail with an invoice for payment and a confirmation after payment is received OR a notification that you have been placed on the waiting list for the camp(s) you have requested.
Questions?
Jeremy Stepien, Director of Education
414-446-8481
jstepien@lyndensculpturegarden.org
2025 CAMPS AT A GLANCE
Camps in red are full. To be added to the wait list, please fill out a registration form. Registration closes the Wednesday prior to the first day of each camp.
| Dates | Time | Camp | Ages |
| June 23-27 | 9 am-4 pm | Metamorphosis, Growth, Change | 6-11 |
| June 30- July 2 | 9 am-12 pm | Garden Protectors - Morning | 4-6 |
| July 7-11 | 9 am-4 pm | Forage: Wild Clay | 6-11 |
| July 14-18 | 9 am-4 pm | Pond Voyage I | 6-11 |
| July 21-25 | 9 am-4 pm | Pond Voyage II | 6-11 |
| August 4-8 | 9 am-4 pm | Whittlers | 10-15 |
| August 11-15 | 9 am-4 pm | Pathways | 6-11 |
| August 18-20 | 9 am-12 pm | Nature's Kitchen - Morning | 4-6 |
FOR THE YOUNG & VERY YOUNG
Tuesdays in the Garden is designed for children aged 1-3 and their caregivers. It provides an opportunity for those with very small children to engage in outdoor play and the manipulation of art materials.
Garden Protectors | 3 Mornings
June 30-July 2 | 9 am-12 pm
Ages 4-6
$126/$101 members
Step through the hidden veil that separates our world from a magical world where gnomes, fairies, and sprites live. We will create miniature environments for these creatures out of pebbles, twigs, mosses, and feathers gathered from the garden. Through hands-on art projects and nature-related explorations, we will learn to honor and respect every living thing around us, just like these magical guardians of nature.
Nature's Kitchen | 3 Mornings
August 18-20 | 9 am-12 pm
Ages 4-6
$126/$101 members
Where does food come from? What does it taste, smell, and feel like? Spend time in Lynden’s vegetable garden: prepare mud pies, stone soups, and flower salads for Lynden’s animals in the playscape “kitchen,” and harvest herbs and vegetables from the garden for our bonfire, where we will bake a delicious treat.
FULL-DAY CAMPS FOR CHILDREN AGED 6-11
Metamorphosis, Growth, Change | 5 Days
June 23-27 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$455/$364 members
The dynamics of the natural world ensure that Lynden's landscape is in constant flux. We can track change within this environment by exploring differences in scale, texture, shape, and form. Whether observing an ecosystem up close or hiking through Lynden's fields, whether viewing plants through a microscope, or raising butterflies in the pollinator garden, we will seek out change and use clay, watercolor, pressure printing, and paper pulp to interpret our discoveries.
Forage: Wild Clay | 5 Days
July 7-11 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$455/$364 members
Foraging helps us discover the reciprocal relationship between ourselves and other living things. Using materials collected from the garden, we will expand the boundaries of what and where art can be. We will practice honorable harvesting to collect wild edibles to make our own tea with Open Kitchen’s Alyx Christensen; dig local clay with visiting artist Chris Salas; and make ceramic beads that we’ll pit-fire in a campfire for a bead exchange. We’ll also dye and sew our own foraging bags for materials we collect along the way.
Pond Voyage | 5 Days
July 14-18 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$455/$364 members
For aquatic insects, understanding buoyancy, surface tension, and propulsion is key to survival. We will adapt this knowledge as we construct floating sculptures, prototypes for the full-sized rafts that will carry us across the pond at the end of the week. We’ll visit the different ponds at Lynden, recording our experiences in pond journals as we go, and learn batik-dyeing to make colorful bandanas and nautical flags that will adorn our rafts and ourselves.
Pond Voyage- Second Crossing | 5 Days
July 21-25 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$455/$364 members
Due to the popularity of this camp, we are resetting our sails and charting a second voyage this summer! Dive into the world of aquatic insects to explore buoyancy, surface tension, and propulsion. Inspired by this knowledge, we’ll construct floating sculptures as prototypes for the full-sized rafts that will carry us across the pond at week’s end. Along the way, we’ll visit Lynden’s ponds, recording our observations in pond journals, and learn batik-dyeing to create colorful bandanas and nautical flags to adorn our rafts and ourselves.
Pathways | 5 Days
August 11-15 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 6-11
$455/$364 members
Unlike a maze, a labyrinth is a single path with no dead ends that leads to a center that is both an end and a beginning. We’ll compare artist-in-residence Jenna Knapp’s labyrinth to other pathways and ecological systems we find in the natural spaces and among the sculptures at Lynden. Patterns, pathways, sounds, and entanglements will be revealed through sensory investigations in printing, clay, and paint.
FOR OLDER CHILDREN UP TO AGE 15
Whittlers: Wood Culture | 5 Days
August 4-8 | 9 am-4 pm
Ages 10-15
$493/$402 members
There is a unique pleasure in working sustainable natural materials with simple hand tools, a pleasure shared by whittlers everywhere. We will use rasps and files to shape hardwood handles for our own fixed-blade carving knives and then head to Lynden’s back acres to learn green wood carving techniques. Along the way we’ll discover how Lynden’s artists and land managers cultivate sustainable interactions with trees. You'll walk away with several projects that can be assembled into a unique carving tool kit, and with new skills that will enable you to continue your whittling adventures at home. Returning whittlers welcome
Registration, Fees & Policies
Registration
To preview a PDF of the registration form, click here. Please note: Space in each camp is limited and we anticipate they will fill quickly. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration does not guarantee admission. Once we receive your completed registration form, we will follow up via e-mail with an invoice for payment and a confirmation after payment is received OR a notification that you have been placed on the waiting list for the camp(s) you have requested. Click here to register online.
Fees
Camp fees include supplies. Save 20% on registration by becoming a Lynden Sculpture Garden member at the family level.
Scholarships
Lynden is committed to making its programs available to all. We reserve 15% of our camp spaces for those requiring assistance; full and partial scholarships are available. To apply, please submit your registration form and contact Jeremy Stepien at (414) 446-8481 or jstepien@lyndensculpturegarden.org for a scholarship application.
Refund Policy
There is a $40 administrative fee for all refunds issued up to 14 days prior to the first day of a camp. No refunds are made after that period.
Cancellation Policy
If a camp is cancelled due to low enrollment (this will be determined 14 days prior to the first day of a camp), your registration fee will be refunded in full.
Safety Modifications
To view our current guidelines for in-person programs, which will be updated as summer approaches, click here.
