25 Free and Paid Virtual Summer Camps to Learn Art and Graphic Design during COVID-19
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Summer camps have always been one of the biggest attractions of the holidays. Not only for kids but for the parents, too. While they provide kids with a chance to indulge in some fun activities with their peers, make new friends, and learn new things, they also give parents some much-needed break and downtime. This year, much like everything else, the summer hasn’t gone to plan. With Covid-19 safety protocols still in place, a lot of summer camps have temporarily shut down their operations.
However, some summer camps have gone online, especially the ones that offer activities that kids can do at home. These include art and craft making, cooking, designing, and similar activities. In this article, we bring you 25 of the most exciting virtual summer camps that your kids and teens can join this holiday to have fun and learn new things.
We have divided the list of camps according to age brackets, so you don’t have to wonder if a camp is suitable for your 5-year old or 13-year-old.
A lot of these virtual camps offer flexible scheduling, easy cancelations, and child-directed learning. Everything, from simple drawings to advanced level STEM and STEAM learning courses are available. Programming, coding, video game designing, as well as illustrations, mixed media, and other forms of graphic design and visual arts, are part of these camps.
So feel ready to dive in and discover? Let’s do it.
Virtual Summer Camps for Kids (Aged 5-11):
These summer camps are for kids who may be looking for something more than just playing around with the same toys or games. The camps we have listed here offer a wide range of art and design-related activities. You can find anything ranging from good old drawings to more advanced painting, mixed media, crafting, and loads of other fun activities.
Some of these virtual camps are entirely free, while others offer initial free trials. Some, however, do not offer free trials but have tons of material online for you to look through to make sure they’re the right fit for your kids.
1. MOCA Virtual Summer Arts Camps
Hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, the MOCA virtual camps offer a lot of fun activities – all art-related – led by professional art instructors. Your child will learn how to draw, paint, and dabble with mixed media during these Zoom workshops. There’s also going to be a Final Project that’ll feature on the museum’s official website as part of a virtual art exhibition.
Activities: Mixed media, painting, drawing, and textile arts.
While PBS doesn’t offer any camp-like atmosphere through its virtual activity dashboard, you’ll still find loads of stuff there to keep the kids engaged. All of the (exhaustive) art and craft activity videos/tutorials you’ll find here come with detailed instructions and a supplies list. The site also has hundreds of coloring, puzzle, and chart pages that you can download and print to keep the kids entertained and interested.
Activities: Arts, crafts, games, pretend play, story-making, puzzles, and so much more.
This UNICEF initiative encourages kids to join a free virtual camp where they learn arts, crafts, and engage in other fun activities and play. The organization has recorded 75+ short videos of its different activities that inspire kids to watch the video and then go offline to play/perform the task. The more a child participates, the more points they earn. They can use those points to unlock food packets for malnourished children around the world or use them to support local Covid-19 supplies shortage.
Activities: Sports, crafts, cooking, games, campfire songs, and much more.
The camp offers video art classes that allow children to learn at their own pace and at schedules that parents set for them. With new videos every day, there’s always something new to learn and try. You also get relevant printable materials for different videos. The camp encourages creative thinking in children by giving them drawing prompts and art prompts, etc.
Activities: Follows weekly themes. Arts, crafts, collages, science experiments, and other activities.
Registration Fee: Special offer of a 14-day free trial, after that $7.99/month. Cancel anytime.
5. The Center for Contemporary Art
The Center for Contemporary Art offers professionals-led Zoom classes that help keep children engaged in different art and design activities. The class size is small, and each child can get individual attention. Your child can learn principles of visual arts, different artistic techniques, and how the contemporary arts evolved.
Activities: Weekly themes. Painting, drawing, graphic design, sculpture making, and many others.
Registration Fee: $135-$270, depending on age range and activity level.
6. Art Camp
This virtual camp will teach your children different forms of visual and graphic arts. Small classes ensure that children get personalized attention from professional artists and designers. Classes are held on Zoom and offer ‘hang out times’ and movement activities, to make sure that kids have a bit of relaxation time, too.
Activities: Drawing, design, media arts, comics and graphic novels, other visual arts, and more.
Registration Fee: $115-$225, depending on the activity level.
7. Art Classes for Kids
This camp offers Art Camp in a Box. It is a box full of varied art supplies to complete ten art projects designed by the camp instructors. Children can either take part in live Zoom classes or watch the videos later to finish the projects at their own pace and deliver before the end date.
Activities: Painting, printmaking, sculpting, and more.
Camp Super Now offers the real camp-like experience with what they call virtual ‘cabins’ consisting of 6-8 kids of similar ages. Each cabin will have a Super Counselor to guide activities and create cabin bonding. Hour-long cabin meetings allow children to take part in art and craft activities as well as movement classes and daily Super Shows. For details, visit their website.
Activities: Daily themed activities, arts and crafts, field trips, yoga, and other movement sessions.
Registration Fee: One-day free trial. Super Show Pass $75 per child. Full Camp Access $199/camper.
9. Tinker Garten at Home
If you want your child to learn art in a nature-based setting, this is the camp for you. Children take part in art adventures in a meaningful experience to develop certain kinds of skills in them. Each year, the Tinker Garten camp chooses a specific skill to focus on and develop through interactive and fun art activities. The virtual summer camp is 8-week long, with each week featuring a new theme.
Activities: Various arts and craft activities using nature as a learning tool.
For a more at-your-own-pace art experience, the video library at DIY.org is a treasure trove of engaging and creative art and craft activities. Children can learn and perform tasks on their own and get feedback from instructors. Kids can share their projects and videos with other kids in the virtual community.
Activities: Art and crafts, photography, science activities, LEGO building, drawing, and more.
Registration Fee: 14-day free trial. Monthly for one kid $19. Monthly for 2-4 kids $25.
11. Kidz to Pros
Through this live camp, your kids will learn new art skills, understand design principles, and engage in craft and STEM learning activities. The summer camp offers two kinds of experiences: a regular (and popular) STEM, arts, and sports activities camp, and another where more advanced technological learning takes place. So, depending on your child’s age and interest level, you can decide which one to consider.
Activities: Graphic design, JAVA game design, Scratch, Python, art skills, Minecraft design, and more.
Toys, siblings, and fun art activities may have kept the younger children entertained during the lockdown, for older kids, especially high-schoolers or pre-college students, it has been more difficult. So, for this age-group, we have listed more challenging activities that promote curiosity, creative thinking, and provide virtual social gatherings with like-minded peers.
The activities and art camps we have listed here provide advanced levels of learning and understanding of the visual and media arts. Here, you will find courses on graphic design, illustration, 3D, and other forms of visual arts.
12. Varsity Tutors
Led by expert instructors, these interactive art and science camps are suitable for K-12 students. Each art camp lasts a week, and you can decide to enroll your kid for a single week or the whole duration of the camp. The tutors add new art camps every day that feature new activities.
Activities: Concept art, graphic novels, digital photography, performance arts, and more.
It is a fun space that has interesting stuffs for younger as well as older kids. Children are encouraged to learn how things are made and then encouraged to take an interest in making them. It’s a hands-on learning experience at home that kids can schedule at their own pace.
Activities: DIY arts and crafts, costume and equipment building, digital design, photo-editing, and more.
Happy Camper Live is a summer camp for art activities that are fun and challenging at the same time. For your older children who are into photography or film making etc., this is a great place to join.
Activities: Photography, film making, visual arts, painting, ceramics, and more.
The best thing about this virtual art camp is that children from all over the world can join in classes and take part in diverse art challenges. The art classes are taught by experts in the field and also include a Final Project completed by kids and showcased by the camp.
Activities: Graphic novels, drawing Olympics, movie making, illustration, Claymation, and more.
This is good old Girl Scouts but going digital. The summer camp offers traditional interactive activities that take the kids away from the screen but also include special classes that teach arts, crafts, environment, and more.
Activities: Arts, crafts, STEM, wildlife, and more.
These virtual tech camps are of an elite level and provide campers with an opportunity to learn anything from graphic design to robotics and more. Class size is small: 5 students max. The instructors who lead the classes come from top tech universities like Stanford and Caltech, etc. Sessions are interactive and personalized to engage each student.
Activities: Video game designing, Minecraft, creative arts, robotics, coding, and more.
Consider enrolling your young digital art enthusiast in The DAE’s virtual art camp this year. The design camp offers higher-level of digital arts training that children will be able to utilize as they finally join college. The summer camp consists of small personalized classes of no more than six students in each. You can also enroll your child for private lessons.
Activities: Video game designing, digital drawing, 3D design, graphic design, coding, and more.
Registration Fee: Special offer $359/week. Regular price $718.
19. Digital Media Academy
The camp offers bundles of design and media-related courses divided by age groups of 7-18 year-olds. The course bundles consist of ten courses each and provide intensive learning opportunities for engaged learners.
Activities: Design challenges, encryption, animation, robotics, photography, and more.
For your high schooler who is passionate about graphic design, NYFA’s Teen Graphic Design Camps are a great place to join. The camp covers a wide range of design topics, from composition to communication and from typography to branding.
Activities: Working on Adobe Creative Suite, image-making, website and logo design, and more.
The school is providing intensive virtual weekly camps for children who want to learn more about arts and graphics. There are once-a-week classes available, too, to gain an initial understanding without diving in too deep. The school provides arts and drama programs for kids, teens, and adults.
Activities: Visual arts, mixed media, architecture, sculpting, and more.
Two-week design camp to introduce kids to design software and design principles. Children create multiple projects, and instructors provide feedback on each. 1-on-1 support from instructors is also provided for those who needs it. The camp programs are most suitable for kids who are seriously into graphic design.
Activities: 2D graphic design, ID design, illustration, imagery and modeling, and more.
Navigating a global pandemic and all the strain that comes with it, plus taking care of the needs of a child with special needs can become challenging for parents, especially with limited opportunities for outside activities.
Therefore, the art and design camps we have listed below address the unique requirements of differently-abled children who learn in unique ways and respond to different environments. Managed and handled by trained experts, these camps teach fun art activities to children with special needs and those fighting life-threatening illnesses. These camps also provide support to children and their families.
23. Kids Like Me
This virtual art camp is for a neurodiverse audience. We say audience because these camps cater to a wide range of audiences, all the way from 6 to 21 year-olds. Sessions take place via Zoom meetings.
Activities: Music, art, drama, STEM learning, and more.
Friendship Circle’s virtual summer program offers a myriad of activities targeted towards learning as well as coping activities. The sessions are interactive and promote inclusive activities. From cooking to storytelling and from music to crafts, a whole lot is present here to keep the children engaged and entertained.
Activities: Drawing, painting, crafts, yoga, thought activities, and more.
American Diabetes Association’s summer camp this year, like many others, is going virtual. In this free virtual camp, anyone can join and make friends. When you sign up, you receive a special ADA Imagine Camp box and Activity Journal via mail. The journal will contain detailed instructions about the activities that will take place during camp sessions, and the box contains necessary supplies.
Activities: Art and design challenges, sing-alongs, campfires, games, and more.
Did we miss any exciting art camps? Share your favorites by tagging us on Twitter (@LogoDesign_Net) or Facebook (@LogoDesignDotNet).
The year 2020 may have put a damper on all of our summer fun, but we don’t have to take it without a fight, right? So explore all these camps and decide which one seems like the best fit for your family. These camps are not only great for the children to socialize but also give you a break to take a nap or fold that laundry that has piled up.
