Explore a wide range of tools to make marks, smudges, and textures that can become expressive works of art. Conduct art experiments to leave room for unexpected results and discover how nontraditional materials and processes can fuel your creative imagination. Layer mediums and processes like collage, photography, and printmaking to add interest and depth to your artwork. Use our galleries as a source of inspiration as you look for artists who think beyond realism and traditional techniques to create art in innovative ways.
The last day to register for this camp is June 5, 2024.
Learn more about Mixing Mediums.
Explore the exhibition Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape to find examples of photographs, installations, and collage that will inspire works of your own. Look to photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris’s body of work to help compose portraits of your classmates and head outdoors to take images of the natural world using a variety of methods including pinhole photography. Experiment with camera-less methods like cyanotype and reconfigure images from magazines, old photographs, and reproductions of works in our collection to create something new.
The last day to register for this camp is June 12, 2024.
Learn more about Digital and Altered Image.
Blaze a trail, lead a hike, and handle live insects. Learn how to manage, conserve, and restore local habitats. Investigate wildlife in Schenley Park and venture to Frick Park by way of Pittsburgh Regional Transit. Build essential skills in emergency preparedness and hazard prevention that you can use to protect hikers and habitats. Delve into the science of forest fires, severe weather, orienteering, and more on a day trip to Powdermill Nature Reserve.
Activity fee: $50
Day trip to Powdermill Nature Reserve: museum pick-up at 6:30 p.m. Late afternoon snack provided.
The last day to register for this camp is June 12,2024.
Learn more about Youth Museum Institute: Nature Rangers.
Apply left-brained thinking to a right-brained activity for unexpected results. Observe works of art in the galleries for ideas, hypothesize some “what-ifs,” then head to the lab for experimentation. Ink, graphite, rubber bands, straws, paint brushes, paper, wood, plastic—let materials take you on a scientifically fun drawing journey. Record your process and results in your sketchbook and make a series of pieces based on your findings.
The last day to register for this camp is June 19, 2024.
Learn more about Drawing Lab.
Learn what goes on behind the scenes in a museum! From collection spaces to research labs, a lot happens behind these walls. Meet real scientists and explore some of the museum's hidden secrets and strange objects. Hop on public transportation to the Heinz History Center and explore the similarities and differences between two museums.
Activity Fee: $35
Day trip to Heinz History Center: museum pick-up at 3 p.m.
The last day to register for this camp is June 19, 2024.
Learn more about Youth Museum Institute: The World Behind the Walls.
Utilize basic filmmaking and animation techniques to create a video-based artwork. Look to examples of moving images in the exhibition Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape and learn to shoot a frame, create dynamic compositions, and utilize light and sound to add the finishing touches to your artwork. Work in teams to film and interview students performing in other camps and collaborate to add film and documentary to their final presentation that both informs and entertains.
The last day to register for this camp is July 3, 2024.
Learn more about Filmmaking.
What would it take to build a self-sustaining colony on Mars? Find out as you investigate life in extreme environments. Explore adaptations that allow plants and animals to survive severe droughts, unprecedented floods, deep freezes, and intense heat. Through hands-on design challenges, learn how engineers use biomimicry to create sustainable innovations.
The last day to register for this camp is July 3, 2024.
Learn more about Youth Museum Institute: Life in the Extremes.
Do you favor the watery worlds of Claude Monet or the textured colors of Joan Mitchell? A landscape that looks perfectly real or an abstraction open to interpretation? Get to know great paintings in the museum’s galleries. Build your skills through daily experiments with numerous painting techniques and color mixing strategies and choose your favorite approach to create your own masterpieces.
The last day to register for this camp is July 10, 2024.
Learn more about Painting Lab.
Uncover the geological mysteries of caves and caverns. Learn lab techniques for analyzing rocks and minerals, then venture outdoors to practice the basics of geology field work on a hiking trip through Schenley Park. Explore the science of unique rock and mineral formations through hands-on experiments. Use your geology knowledge to interpret the hidden secrets of the world, and tour the natural wonders of Laurel Caverns on a day trip.
Activity fee: $50
Day trip to Laurel Caverns: museum pick-up at 4 p.m.
The last day to register for this camp is July 10, 2024.
Learn more about Youth Museum Institute: Geology Explorers.
Find inspiration in your own image and learn the basics of reconstructing the human face and figure. Move beyond the human form and exemplify the characteristics of animals or other subjects and find way to showcase their personality through color, texture, and style. Browse examples of portraiture in our galleries and use painting, sculpture, and photography to capture a subject’s likeness and explore abstract ways to create a portrait.
The last day to register for this camp is July 17, 2024.
Learn more about Portraits.
Piece together a prehistoric mystery as you explore the science of paleontology. Map and excavate a mock dig site, wrap your finds in plaster fossil jackets, and transport them to the classroom. Build hands-on fossil prep skills by reconstructing discoveries and analyzing bones. Stack up your finds against the specimens in the exhibition Dinosaurs in Their Time to discover what bone you’ve found, which dinosaur it came from, and how that part of the skeleton functioned.
The last day to register for this camp is July 17, 2024.
Learn more about Youth Museum Institute: Paleontology.
Become a playwright, actor, and designer as you discover the ingredients of great performance. Work with your class to create a unique play concept, sets, costumes, and props all inspired by the art housed in our galleries. Immerse yourself in comedy and drama as you work towards the grand finale, a performance open to friends and family.
The last day to register for this camp is July 24, 2024.
Learn more about Center Stage.
Push, pull, squish, and play with clay into anything you can imagine—from a bowl you can use to sculpted figures of your pet or an imaginative creature of your own design. Become inspired by the organic forms of ceramic artist Beate Kuhn, mix mediums like found objects and plaster with multiple forms of clay, and construct figurative sculptures that stand, sit or dance suspended in motion. Kiln-fired projects will be fired and available for pick-up at the museum 3 to 4 weeks after camp.
The last day to register for this camp is July 24, 2024.
Learn more about Ceramics.
Get ready to see Pittsburgh like you have never seen it before! Trek across the city by foot and Pittsburgh Regional Transit to explore Frick Park and go indoor rock climbing at ASCEND. Navigate through Pittsburgh’s kaleidoscope of cultural traditions. Learn what you can do to make city life better for all of Pittsburgh’s inhabitants. Lace up your sneakers—this is an active camp with daily hiking and public transit excursions.
Activity fee: $50
Rock Climbing with ASCEND and daily local trips: museum pick up at 3 p.m.
The last day to register for this camp is July 24, 2024.
Learn more about Youth Museum Institute: Go Pittsburgh!.
Use natural and humanmade fibers like yarn, fabric, and grasses to create unique artworks. Work in teams to construct a collaborative sculpture inspired by the exhibition Pittsburgh Satellite Reef Project. Weave with papers, learn how to tie-dye and hand-sew, and create 3D artworks and soft sculptures with pulp, plastics, and cloth. Learn how to tie-dye, hand sew, and invent your own fabrics with stamped patterns or other unique embellishments using diverse materials.
The last day to register for this camp is July 31, 2024.
Learn more about Fiber Arts and Fashion.
Decode puzzles left by ancient peoples from around the world and throughout history. Delve into experimental archaeology through design challenges such as mixing rock art pigments, using stone tools, and testing pottery techniques. Extract DNA and learn what modern studies in genetics reveal about prehistoric human migration. Explore Meadowcroft Rockshelter and discover more about the earliest human habitation in North America.
Activity fee: $50
Day trip to Meadowcroft Rockshelter: museum pick-up at 5 p.m.
The last day to register for this camp is July 31,2024.
Learn more about Youth Museum Institute: Secrets of Ancient Culture.
Push, pull, squish, and play with clay into anything you can imagine—from a bowl you can use to sculpted figures of your pet or an imaginative creature of your own design. Become inspired by the organic forms of ceramic artist Beate Kuhn, mix mediums like found objects and plaster with multiple forms of clay, and construct figurative sculptures that stand, sit or dance suspended in motion. Kiln-fired projects will be fired and available for pick-up at the museum 3 to 4 weeks after camp.
The last day to register for this camp is August 7, 2024.
Learn more about Ceramics.