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Camp Location
St Paul’s Gathering Place in Warkworth and Kennedy Park/Rotary Hall in Campbellford
artworthcamp@gmail.com
About Artworth
Our Story
ArtWorth was conceived in 2005 when a small group of parents, grandparents and artists met at the Warkworth Heritage Centre to explore creating a summer arts day camp for the children of Trent Hills. A guiding principle was to offer children the opportunity to grow and express themselves through the arts facilitated by professional artists based in Trent Hills and area. A working Steering Committee was formed including Heidi Schaeffer and Sara Jane Shakura who continue to help lead the camp to this day. ArtWorth has evolved into a flourishing arts and nature connection camp with programs serving all three communities and has become a much-anticipated annual feature of summer for the children and parents of Trent Hills.
Vision
Vision
Artworth is rooted in the beautiful landscape of Trent Hills. An area known for its many artists and creatives who live in and around the culturally vibrant communities of Warkworth, Campbellford and Hastings.
Artworth’s vision is to nurture a love of art and a deep sense of belonging to the land, to each other and our communities. Artworth sees inspired and connected young people becoming stewards of the earth and co-creators of flourishing communities. In 2023, Artworth expanded its vision to include people of all ages, and families, as stewards of the lands and waters and co-creators for flourishing together.
In 2024, Artworth began offering eco-social art and nature connection programs for adults in the fall and in partnership with the Whole Learning Alliance.
Bursaries
Early on, the ArtWorth Steering committee recognized that if the ArtWorth program was to be made available to all the youth of Trent Hills, a bursary program would have to be put in place to assist some residents. For over fifteen years, ArtWorth has managed an ongoing Bursary Program for families residing in Trent Hills that may need assistance with the camp tuition.
The funds for these bursaries have come from a variety of sources: An annual fundraiser at the Warkworth Lilac Festival, donations from private individuals and historically, we had support from the Warkworth 50+ Club, a Ruth Stephens Memorial Bursary and the Eastern Star organization. It is these caring partnerships that have helped make Artworth accessible to more families across Trent Hills. If you would like to donate to the ArtWorth Bursary Fund, please write to us at artworthcamp@gmail.com.
ArtWorth would like to acknowledge the generous support of Elizabeth Aikenhead, Bob Crate, Monica Johnson, Meggin King, and Elizabeth Heon for their support of the ArtWorth bursary fund in 2021, 2022, or 2023.
Location
In the first few years, camps were based at the Warkworth Town Hall Centre for the Performing Arts, and several other venues in town were used. For over fifteen years, the Gathering Place at St. Paul’s United Church has been the permanent home of ArtWorth. More recently, during the pandemic, Artworth has delivered a fully outdoor program and expanded across all of Trent Hills including camps in Campbellford and Hastings. An important aspect of ArtWorth is to provide children with experiences of community belonging and connections with village and town life. This may include visiting local farms and businesses and using public spaces for the creation of art installations and performances.
Art forms
Over the course of ArtWorth’s history children have had the opportunity to make pottery, experience wood turning, carve soapstone, make paper and felt art, make kites, silk screen fabric, photography, food art, create songs, improv skits, dance shows and short movies, interview their elders, learn drumming, paint murals, and make creations still seen in the gardens outside the Warkworth library and at the Warkworth Manor. Also, a collective painting at the Aron Theatre Co-op in Campbellford and a mosaic bench at Westben. In 2024, a permanent installation was created, murals and bird sculptures, for the children’s section of the Campbellford Library. This mural was supported by the Community Foundation of Campbellford/Seymour and Northumberland.
Belonging to Community
An important aspect of ArtWorth is to provide children with experiences of community belonging and connections with village and town life. This may include visiting local artists, farms or businesses and using public spaces for the creation of art installations and performances. For over fifteen years, the Gathering Place at St. Paul’s United Church has been the home base for ArtWorth. In the last five years, Artworth has expanded across all of Trent Hills and now delivers an annual camp in Campbellford based at Kennedy Park and in the Rotary Hall.
Artists Programs
A key objective of the camp is to have local artists mentor and inspire the children, youth and teens, and over our 20-year history, more than 50 artists have worked with the campers. Many of these artists have participated multiple times, and two artists deserve special mention. Monica Johnston at Frantic Farms Clay and Glass Gallery was a founding member of ArtWorth, served on the Steering Committee for a number of years and taught pottery annually for 10 years. And Skye Morrison, who has introduced the teen volunteers to silk screening and led a fun textile project almost every year.
Partnerships
ArtWorth is a non-profit that generates much of its annual budget from registration fees. However, we could never have continued to deliver the programming we do without several significant and long-term community partnerships.
We are very grateful to St. Paul’s United Church for its ongoing partnership and commitment to Artworth. We also want to thank the Campbellford Rotary Club for allowing us to use their facilities at a reduced cost each year. The Aron Theatre Co-op in Campbellford has also supported Artworth by reducing the theatre rental cost for our performances.
We wish to acknowledge that ongoing financial support has come from The Warkworth Community Service Club for the teen leadership program. For many years, the General on Mill Pond in Hastings (formerly the General on Main) has generously supplied the camp with t-shirts for all participants. We have also received donations of art materials from some local businesses and from private individuals, including Delphine White, Brad Francis and Heidi Schaeffer. Donations of quality art materials are always gratefully received.
We wish to gratefully acknowledge that the Community Foundation of Campbellford Seymour and Northumberland has been providing funding for the Assistant Camp Coordinator position through its Job Opportunities for Youth grants. The Board of a local charity, INNRESPONSE, is an ongoing partner with ArtWorth and is the charitable grantee for our funding applications.
