Local youths learned about the newspaper business, the ads that appear in newspapers each week, and the different businesses in the community through this year’s Art in Advertising Camp at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum.
The camp was held in July through a partnership between Estevan Mercury Publications and the EAGM. The young people in the camp toured the Mercury office early in the camp, and learned how the paper is put together each week.
Then they went to work creating ads for local businesses. Those ads can be found in this week’s edition of the Mercury.
Karly Garnier, the educator for the EAGM, said the kids in the camp had a great time.
“I did it a little bit differently this year in that I limited the number of participants,” said Garnier. “My maximum registration for the camp was 10 kids, and we wound up having six.”
Garnier wanted to cap the number of participants so the youths could create as many ads as possible. The children also need one-on-one time, she said, since Garnier expects them to take the camp and the ads seriously. Businesses have paid to have their ads appear.
“They really get the hang of making the ads by doing them,” said Garnier. “When I’ve done it in years past, and we’ve had as many kids as there were ads, they didn’t really get a chance to explore their creativity and learn about the design process.”
Each participant made two or three ads, she said, and she could see how the children took her advice about design, placement, slogans and more, and incorporated everything into the ads.
For the first ad, Garnier selected which ad the children would create, but for each subsequent ad, the children chose which ones they would do.
The kids were excited with the finished products.
“Because the Mercury had so many ads, they were able to have some choice, and everyone got to explore different businesses,” said Garnier.
Garnier was impressed with the variety of businesses involved with this year’s camp. She found there was a variety of local businesses involved, including a number that the kids could easily relate to, such as restaurants. But they also had retail businesses, vehicle dealerships and more.
“I believe that for one of the girls in the camp, one of the businesses was her family’s business, so she was excited about that,” said Garnier.
The camp also allowed the kids to learn more about the different businesses in the city. Many of them the kids had heard of previously, but for others, it might be their introduction to a business.
Children learned more about the products and services those companies offer.
“It’s nice to see what they come up with in terms of the pictures they draw,” said Garnier.
The Art in Advertising camp has been around for several years, and remains one of the most popular offerings among the EAGM’s summer camps, particularly with the older youths.
“Most of the camp is drawing-based, so it’s great for kids that love to draw,” said Garnier.
The EAGM offered two other camps this summer. The first was the Art Scientists camp in early July, and the other was Art Exploration at the end of that month. Garnier said the EAGM might need to look at camps for children ages four to six, since most of their camps are geared towards children ages six to 12. It would allow them to have artistic avenues for children of all ages.
The EAGM also has programs for adults and children planned for the fall. Some existing programs and events from previous years will be returning.
“We’re trying to expand our Halloween Haunt event even further,” said Garnier. “That’s always a really popular event in the community in October, it’s for families and children, and we’re trying to make it bigger and better this year.”
