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Youngsters mix hip-hop, visual art at YWCA camp
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Hadley Reese, 10, is a budding artist and spent this week honing his skill and learning some new ones at YWCA of Youngstown’s STEAM camps for youths.
“My mom signed me up because she knows I love art,” the Jackson-Milton Elementary School fifth-grader said.
He browsed Thursday through the Women in Art show inside the YWCA building, admiring the work.
“I look at this, and I feel I should be doing this,” Hadley said, pointing to one of the works.
Since Monday, 15 students in elementary and middle school grades have been spending their mornings creating art and their afternoons learning hip-hop dance. This is among weeklong Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics camps offered by the YWCA this summer.
While art is what attracted Hadley to the camp, he’s enjoying the hip-hop portion, too.
“We’re dancing to ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ by Justin Timberlake,” Hadley said.
“For some of the moves, it really shows passion,” Hadley said.
Instructor Ashley Hudzik taught the students the hip-hop dance.
“They caught on really fast,” she said.
Most of the dance is choreographed, but the routine includes a few seconds where the dancers can freestyle.
Hudzik also led the youngsters in dance games.
Heather Seno is in her third year as the camp’s art instructor.
Her tutelage covers drawing in graphite pencils, painting in acrylic, creating a community mural and learning about collages.
They painted still lifes and worked in teams to make a community mural.
On Thursday afternoon, the campers embarked on an art scavenger hunt.
Betsy Ford, co-chairwoman with Barbara Faires of the Women in Art show, printed a list of questions about the art in the show.
They had to find the artwork with the empty Coke bottle. That was Campbell artist Diane Beatty’s “Empty Abandonment.”
They had to locate the smallest and the largest paintings in the show.
Lucy Moon, 8, of Boardman, Addison Loomis, 8, of Liberty, and Kennedy Carpenter, 6, of Canfield teamed up for the hunt.
“I know that one,” Addison chimed, hurrying off to show her teammates.
The last question, “What’s your favorite piece of art?” caused some consternation, though. The three girls couldn’t agree on one piece.
Kennedy said painting was her favorite part of this week’s camp while Addison and Lucy pointed to hip-hop.
“Ashley is really nice, and we play fun games,” Addison said.