Idea Box Integrated Arts

Collaborate. Create. Connect.

Idea Box Integrated Arts provides residencies which blend art-making and performance to give students a forum for expressing their own artistic vision.

Fashion Design

Wearable art of all kinds, hand and machine sewing, and embellishment techniques.


Fashion Design often gets left out of the interdisciplinary arts, but the clothes are nothing without the model. In addition to designing their work, students learn to style and pose a model (themselves or others), photograph their work, and “walk” their designs to best show them off.


Intro to Sewing

is for young artists ready to move beyond “sock” and “paper bag” puppets to something a little more durable and professional.

Campers build a hand-and-rod puppet from scratch, including:

  • Building the internal structure from patterns with foam and hot glue

  • Building the external appearance from patterns using fleece and hot glue

  • Installing interchangeable arm rods and magnetic palm plates

  • Designing and creating the puppet’s facial feaures using foam, fleece, fur, etc.

  • Learn basic hand-and-rod puppet operation.

This camp ends with a Live Puppet Panel during the last hour of camp on Friday, during which the campers will practice their operation skills in a “panel of puppet experts” by having their puppets improvise answers to live audience questions.


Unique Accessories

crosses over with our Oddball Arts series because it’s part digital, part analog, and the balance between the two is up to the individual artist.

Students in this camp are invited to express their personal worldview by:

Unique Accessories summer camp for Grades 1 through 12, belts, charms, clips, and more.
  • Creating a zine

  • Outlining a comic strip or political cartoon

  • Creating a short animatic or sketch comedy video

  • Recording a vlog or blog

  • Presenting a multi-media exploration of their artistic point of view.

Students are encouraged to create work that is silly, serious, bizarre, or beautiful— whatever they want the world to see!

This camp ends with a multi-media experience for family and friends during the last hour of camp on Friday.


Upcycled Fashion

takes theater to the streets with flash mobs, spontaneous acts of kindness, public art, and protest theater. Campers will:

  • Consider what impact they want their work to have on the audience.

Upcycled Fashion Design summer camp for student campers Grades 5 and up
  • Learn to respectfully navigate artistic discourse around sensitive and/or controversial topics.

  • Develop one or more original pieces for public performance.

  • Learn how to choose and secure a safe, legal public performance space.

  • Build a trust relationship between performer and audience in public spaces.

Performances will be held in and around The Idea Box along with cooperating local restaurants and retailers. The performances will take place during the last 90 minutes of camp on Friday.


If you have questions about how we handle discussions around sensitive subject matter and activist art-making, please contact us prior to registration.


Camp Cosplay

Brings together costume design, prop construction and character performance. Campers are invited to bring an in-progress cosplay or start work on one in camp. This camp focuses on working with common materials, tools, and techniques used in cosplay construction, including:

  • EVA (craft) foam sculpting and patterning techniques

  • Fabric identification and selection

  • Adapting character designs to your own style and proportions

  • Cosplay comfort— wearable layers that can be managed by the designer alone.

  • Cosplay character performance— moving in cosplay, stage contest skills, and posing for photos.

This camp ends with a staged “costume contest” for the entertainment of family and friends with peer-selected awards for all campers. The event will be held during the last hour of camp on Friday, and will be followed by a brief reception celebrating the desigbner/performers.


Prepare and Perform

offers campers in Grades 1-3 an opportunity to start building props and costumes right away the first day for an exciting original performance. Each week has it’s own unique theme— Click the image for more info!


Use the filter below to search ALL camps by date, age, and topic.

Register on ActivityHero

Idea Box Camp and Class Schedule