Hi! I’m Kelsey and my internship this summer is with the Peggy R. McConnell Arts Center in Worthington, Ohio. I’ll be spending the coming weeks organizing, planning, and assisting the MAC’s summer youth camps, where kids from around the area come to learn about and develop a love for all the fine arts. 

I spent my first week at the MAC as a counselor for Camp Creativity. I had a group of eleven 10-year-olds (go Red Team!), and I led them around as they got to experience painting, drawing, sculpting, critiquing art, dancing, and acting, mostly for the first time. We also focused on building a language around the fine arts so they would find it easier to talk about. The central part of this was teaching them how to kindly say that they might not like something, which they could do by giving a reason and still acknowledging that the artwork may have taken a lot of time and effort. I found it very meaningful that I began my time at the MAC with a strong reminder of why this placement was my top choice. What I love most is advocating for the arts, and this week was a hands-on opportunity for me to do exactly that. Fostering a love of the arts must begin at a young age, and it was my privilege to help a group of kids discover that passion early.  

My favorite parts of every day happened when I had the chance to sit down with my campers and work on the projects with them. As much as I love doing my own arts and crafts, listening to a young camper talk about why they’re having fun and letting them explain their own ideas really allowed me to feel like I was giving back to my community. Thanks to one of my campers, I can now confidently say that I’m well versed in the pros and cons of a city made of floating islands. When I was young, there were countless people (mostly my parents) who listened to me and guided me through the arts so I could develop my passions. The only real way I can thank them is to pay it forward.  

There were some challenges along the way, like when we had a long discussion about using paint on their projects instead of on the tables. There always will be challenges when working with young campers, though, and seeing how excited they were to continue working on their project (sometimes at the cost of being late to their pool time) was beyond rewarding. After a week’s worth of hard work and creative thinking, I’m ready to tackle the projects that lay ahead of me this summer.