FARMINGTON – Children completing grades one to three are invited to sign up for the Foothills Arts Center’s Art and Story-Theater Camp. Families can choose between Session 1, July 16 to 20 in Wilton or Session 2, July 23 to 27 in Farmington. The program will run from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.

In all of its programs, the Foothills Arts Center encourages imaginative thinking and joyous expression. In this summer’s Art and Story-Theater Camp, children will explore the theme of “My Community and Me.”

The teachers, Danielle Guerrette and Kim Jacques, invite the participants to “come explore the community around you. See what you have in common with others and what makes you unique. Learn how we are all connected and important to our community.”

In the art project, children will make a three-dimensional mural about themselves and their community. Using collage, paint, oil pastels and things they find around the house or yard, they will also create a self-portrait that will interact with the people around them.

In the story-theater portion, the teachers and children will tell and listen to stories about what it is like to grow up in their community. The children will write poems and act out their own stories.

Jacques, the teacher for Session 1, has been teaching elementary art for the past two years in the Farmington area. She has also taught at the high school level and workshops at Johnson Hall in Gardiner and George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill.

Her own art, which reflects on the human condition, focuses on creating a story within her work. She particularly likes to work with mixed media. “I enjoy watching my students create. They have terrific imaginations, and I love being the one to open the door to that creativity.”

Guerrette, Session 2 teacher, has been teaching art at Mt. Blue Middle School for three years and has been involved with the Foothills Learning through the Arts after-school program for three years as an assistant and lead teacher.

She has also worked for summer programs teaching art in Presque Isle. A painter at heart, Guerrette enjoys all media as a way for people to express themselves in a way words cannot. “I enjoy seeing art make a difference in young people’s lives,” she said.

For information about fees and to sign up, contact Foothills Director Anne Geller at 778-0448 or [email protected]. There is an early-bird discount for sign-ups received by Wednesday, June 20.

The Foothills Arts Center is a nonprofit community organization whose mission is to bring together children and adults, artists and audiences to share the arts in an atmosphere that encourages learning, exploration and collaboration.