In order to protect the health of our visitors, campers, and staff, Camps will be held virtually for the month of June. Member enrollment begins May 29. Open enrollment starts the following week on June 5. The same considerations will be top of mind as we consider in-person camps for July and August.

Learn new skills, use your imagination, make new friends, or just chill out with one-week summer camps that champion process over product and use art to build school readiness, creative minds, and forward thinkers. School-aged children are encouraged to imagine, experiment, and most importantly, create!

This year’s camps draw from the intricate, hilarious Pop Surrealism of Todd Schorr (last seen at the Crocker’s 2017 exhibition, Turn The Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose ), Louis Comfort Tiffany’s famed glass, and the Crocker’s own collection of world-class art. Each program is filled with museum exploration, from time in the galleries to outdoor play. Campers will look at, talk about, and create art as they make new friends and build key social and emotional skills.

Two snacks per day are provided. Box lunches are available for purchase from the Crocker Cafe by Supper Club.

Each class features:

  • A day-long schedule all week, 9 AM – 4 PM
  • Professional art educators with diverse teaching styles and backgrounds
  • A balanced day of recreation and instruction
  • All supplies included
  • Two snack per day. Box lunches are available for purchase from the Crocker Cafe by Supper Club
  • A 100-percent cotton Crocker Kid t-shirt for each camper
  • Small student to instructor ratios, and groupings by age to support developmentally appropriate interaction and exchange
  • A field trip or a special guest

All camps are $250 for members or $295 for nonmembers. Prices vary for summer classes.

Summer Camps

Ages 5 & 6

Bark, Meow, Roar, Paint!
From amusing aardvarks to zippy zebras, draw, paint, and sculpt real (or imagined) animals, including those viewed during a trip to the Sacramento Zoo.
Monday – Friday, July 13 – 17
Monday – Friday, August 3 – 7

Drip, Daub, Splat, Paint!
Science and art collide in a class that experiments with traditional and avant-garde painting techniques and surfaces. Fling, drip, and spray paint with a variety of unconventional tools.
Monday – Friday, June 22 – 26
Monday – Friday, July 27 – 31

Fantastic Adventures in Clay
Squishing, pinching, and molding are the name of the game as campers create bowls, wind chimes, wearable art, and fantastical creatures from air-dry clay.
Monday – Friday, July 6 – 10

Each program is led by professional art educators with diverse teaching styles and backgrounds.

Squiggly Lines and Dashing Dots
Dots become a line and lines become a pattern, and so on ad infinitum. Explore and celebrate the basics of art — line, shape, form, space, texture, value, and color — before painting an assortment of compositions.
Monday – Friday, June 15 – 19
Monday – Friday, July 20 – 24

Ages 7 - 9

It’s Showtime!
Imaginations run wild when campers create props, sets, and scenes for their own stories before stepping onto the Crocker’s Setzer Foundation Auditorium stage to the delight of family and friends.
Monday – Friday, July 6 – 10

Road Trip with the Crockers
Buckle up for an in-gallery road trip that follows the Crockers across Europe on an art collecting adventure. Explore a variety of art mediums, from sketching and sculpting to portrait photography and landscape painting.
Monday – Friday, July 13 – 17
Monday – Friday, August 3 – 7

Imperial Dragons and Celestial Clouds
Discover embroidery, ink brush painting, metal reliefs, and other art processes found in the Crocker’s Asian art collection.
Monday – Friday, June 22 – 26
Monday – Friday, July 27 – 31

Each camp includes a field trip or a special guest.

It’s Electrifying!
Light up the Crocker by using simple circuitry to create dazzling mixed-media works in a camp that’s part science and part art. Plus, watch experts play with fire and glass during a field trip to a local hot shop!
Monday – Friday, June 15 – 19
Monday – Friday, July 20 – 24

Want to learn more about our camps for kids? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions page HERE!

Summer Classes

Ages 9 - 12

Drawing and Painting Lab
June 29 – July 3
Discover the best of wet and dry media, from watercolor and acrylics to colored pencil and pastels.

Boom! Zap! Bam! Cartoon Drawing
Monday – Friday, July 13 – 17
Illustrate stories that soar! Create original, animated worlds that defy gravity,and develop core drawing techniques.

This year’s camps draw from the intricate, hilarious Pop Surrealism of Todd Schorr (last seen at the Crocker’s 2017 exhibition, Turn The Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose ), Louis Comfort Tiffany’s famed glass, and the Crocker’s own collection of world-class art. (Image: Todd Schorr, Ape Worship, 2007. Acrylic on canvas, 96 x 120 in. Collection of Mark Parker. © Todd Schorr.)

Ages 11 - 13

It's 3-D (The D is for Dabble!)
Monday – Friday, July 6 – 10
Experiment with a variety of materials — like air-dry clay, papier-mâché, paint, and sculpt clay — to paint, sculpt, model, and mold materials into three-dimensional works.

Beginning Drawing
Monday – Friday, July 20 – 24
Drawing from the Museum’s collections, explore different drawing styles before applying them in the studio using colored pencils, charcoal, markers, chalk pastels, and Caran d’Ache sticks.

Ages 14 - 17

Comics, Manga and Anime Lab
Monday – Thursday, August 3 – 6
In this experimental and exploratory class inspired by the fantastical works of Todd Schorr, learn about the history of graphic fiction, while exploring and developing your illustrative skills in drawing and painting.