Above: NY Subway Car, Images by Future and other artists, Private Collection
GICA YOUTH PROGRAMS
CREATIVE KIDS SUMMER PROGRAM 2025
CAMP SPOTLIGHT :
WHERE ART MEETS AMBITION
A Summer Camp for Future Contemporary Artists (Ages 9-14)
At Camp Spotlight, we believe that talent alone doesn't make an artist—confidence, competitiveness, and self-positioning do. This isn’t your average finger-painting summer camp. Here, young artists learn to create strategically, to speak boldly about their work, and to challenge the work of others. It’s all part of preparing for a future in the thrilling, competitive, and sometimes cutthroat world of contemporary art.
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In a supportive – but always challenging – environment, campers develop their technical skills while also learning how to navigate the art world’s unwritten rules: how to frame their ideas, promote their vision, and articulate why their work matters—more than anyone else’s. Exercises in critique, presentation, and persona-building sharpen the campers' aesthetic judgment and public presence. They'll learn from top-notch industry professionals how to ask hard questions like: “Who am I competing with, and how can I win?" “Who is my target audience for this work?” and “Am I being derivative, or am I being strategic?”
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​"The Global Art Market is Worth
65 Billion Dollars a Year.
This is no Place to Make Nice."
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Each day includes studio time, high-stakes critiques, performative introductions, and group exhibitions where campers learn how to command a room. They’ll experiment with installation, video, sculpture, and conceptual practices, all while being encouraged to see art-making as an arena—one in which clarity, courage, and calculated charisma often carry the day.
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Guest artists and art-world insiders join the camp to share strategies on gaining attention, building networks, and surviving rejection. Campers are invited to reimagine what success looks like, and to rehearse the subtle art of self-branding without apology.
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At Camp Spotlight, praise is earned, not given. Influence is measured, and reputations are battles won. Because we believe that by learning to stand out now, campers will be ready to take up space later—not just on gallery walls, but in the wider discourse of art itself.
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It’s not just art camp. It’s initiation. Welcome to the game.
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"Will You be just an Amateur or a Future Leader in a Professional Blood Sport? You Decide."
Keeping the Rural Contemporary
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE :
AI CRASH COURSE FOR
YOUNG RURAL ARTISTS
An Intensive Workshop in AI-Augmented Art Practice (Ages 14-18)
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Let’s be clear: the art world is changing—fast. While you're painting barns and carving driftwood, your urban peers are training models, generating images, building datasets, and collaborating with machines that don’t sleep, hesitate, or second-guess. This crash course exists because you cannot afford to be left behind.
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AI is not a gimmick. It’s not “just another tool.” It’s an entirely new creative terrain, and the artists who master it now will define what art looks like in the next decade. This is about survival, relevance, and advantage. We’re here to make sure that rural artists—yes, you—have the skills, confidence, and conceptual clarity to compete on equal ground with your tech-savvy, MFA-holding, city-dwelling counterparts. Learn from the Best:
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"Forget modesty. Forget about waiting to be 'discovered'.
This is about survival, relevance, and advantage."
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In this workshop, you’ll learn how to use cutting-edge AI tools to generate imagery, remix text, simulate voices, recompose videos, and build complex conceptual works—on your own terms. Whether you're a sculptor, weaver, photographer, or poet, we’ll show you how AI can push your practice into places you’ve never imagined—and how to own that space.
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We’ll cover prompt engineering, dataset curation, text-to-image pipelines, AI-based curation, performance using large language models, and how to critically frame your work so it’s not dismissed as tech-novice spectacle. You’ll also learn how to challenge the aesthetic assumptions of AI systems themselves—turning the tools inside out and bending them toward rural knowledge, land-based culture, and vernacular aesthetics. You’re not just users—you’re insurgents.
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Forget modesty. Forget waiting to be discovered. This is a confrontation. The AI art world is full of noise, derivative content, and aesthetic laziness. You can do better—but only if you know how the systems work and how to weaponize them with precision.
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This is not a nice-to-have skillset. It’s the new minimum. This is the crash course that prepares you not just to survive in the future of art—but to lead it. So bring your practice. Bring your rural weirdness, your off-grid stubbornness, your generational knowledge. We’ll bring the code. Let’s burn down the old categories and rebuild something strange, fast, and undeniably yours.
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If you are interested in these programs, please contact the Institute by Email
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"It May Be 'Rural', But it Sure Ain't Kansas Any More"
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