Camps for Ages 11–13
Full-day camps, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.
At Carnegie Museum of Art, spend a week at the museum focusing on artistic processes, materials, and techniques. Teaching artists and architects help you take your creativity and skills to the next level. Have fun creating and collaborating with artists your own age while you get inspired by the work of famous artists and architects in the museum’s galleries. Some camps include overnight stays at Powdermill Nature Reserve and at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.
At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, our Youth Museum Institute is an exciting summer experience for middle schoolers. Work alongside museum staff to conduct research on topics that are important to you, and turn your inquiry into mini-exhibits, activities, or multimedia presentations for use in the museum. The Youth Museum Institute helps you develop leadership skills and connections to promote independent learning after camp is over. Partnerships with Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece Fallingwater, and Powdermill Nature Reserve, the environmental research center of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, broaden experiences beyond the museum.
Children must be at least eleven years old as of the first day of their camp.
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June 11–15
Drawing
Draw the world around you. Learn to draw from observation, capturing exactly what you see as well as making abstract patterns and designs. Experiment with pencil, charcoal, pastel, and pen and ink.
Youth Museum Institute: Mysteries of Pittsburgh
With kayak trip & rock walk
This camp is full. Please click here to place your name on the waitlist. Another session is also available June 18–22.
Get ready to see Pittsburgh like you’ve never seen it before! How does a falcon-eye view from the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning compare with a view of the skyline from the head of the Ohio River? Find out as you explore the city by foot, by bus, and on a kayak trip led by experienced Venture Outdoors guides. A rock walk in Schenley Park near the museum reveals secrets about how our region’s celebrated landscape formed. Hike hillside steps for unique views of town. Gain a better understanding of watershed ecology and geography through biodiversity studies and geologic exploration. Set up experiments that model glaciation and erosion. Slip and slide on a model glacier in an ice-block race! Field trip fee: $35.
June 18–22
Painting
Painting is a way of conveying your ideas about the world around you. Learn every aspect of the painting process from sketching your idea to painting on canvas. Learn differences between watercolor, tempera, and acrylic. During the course of the week, create a series of paintings both large and small.
Youth Museum Institute: Paleontology Illustration & Modeling
What does it take to tell the story of prehistoric life? Learn techniques of scientific illustration and model-making. Design projects that test ideas about form and function in dinosaurs and other ancient animals. Use your experiences to develop activities that illustrate for museum visitor the amazing story of paleontology. Create scale drawings and life-sized murals of dinosaurs and the ecosystems in which they lived. Make a latex mold and plaster cast of a real fossil from our educational collection. Build models to test the strength and flexibility of dinosaur skeletons and muscles.
Youth Museum Institute: Mysteries of Pittsburgh
With kayak trip & rock walk
Get ready to see Pittsburgh like you’ve never seen it before! How does a falcon-eye view from the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning compare with a view of the skyline from the head of the Ohio River? Find out as you explore the city by foot, by bus, and on a kayak trip led by experienced Venture Outdoors guides. A rock walk in Schenley Park near the museum reveals secrets about how our region’s celebrated landscape formed. Hike hillside steps for unique views of town. Gain a better understanding of watershed ecology and geography through biodiversity studies and geologic exploration. Set up experiments that model glaciation and erosion. Slip and slide on a model glacier in an ice-block race! Field trip fee: $35.
June 25–29
Dream House
Design a house limited only by your imagination! Get inspired by architectural drawings, models, and artworks in the galleries that represent houses from around the world and throughout history. Create floor plans, elevations, sections, and a model of the house of your dreams. Share your architectural drawings and models with your family and friends on the last day of camp.
Youth Museum Institute: Secrets of Ancient Cultures
Decode puzzles left behind by ancient peoples from around the world and throughout history. Learn some of the techniques of archaeological excavation in a hands-on dig that unearths local history. Translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, interpret murals, and write your own secret messages. Delve into experimental archaeology through design challenges such as mixing rock art pigments, using stone tools, and testing pottery techniques. Extract DNA and learn what modern studies in genetics reveal about prehistoric human migration. Break rocks and test the properties of materials used for stone tools.
July 2–6
Drawing People
This camp is full. Please click here to place your name on the waitlist.
Develop your eye and hand for drawing portraits and the human figure as you experiment with pencil, charcoal, pen and ink, and more. Learn proportions of the human form as you draw sculptures in the collection and from a live model.
July 9–13
Painting Landscapes
With overnight stay at Powdermill Nature Reserve
Find inspiration in Carnegie Museum of Art’s galleries as you learn style, technique, and the history of painting outdoors. Explore paint application and color theory in our museum studios before an overnight stay at Powdermill Nature Reserve, the environmental research center of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Hike the grounds with a nature specialist and spend the afternoon sketching sunlight and shadows. In the evening, create your own moonscapes, followed by a campfire and s’mores. Work on a large landscape painting on the nature reserve grounds. The overnight trip will be chaperoned by Museum of Art instructors. An overnight checklist, itinerary, and additional information about Powdermill Nature Reserve will be provided upon registration. Field trip fee: $175.
Neighborhoods in My City
Explore a neighborhood on foot and in paintings! Board our charter bus with a team of architect chaperones for a day visiting a local neighborhood and exploring a main street and local housing styles. Design a neighborhood of your own and see how it connects with your classmates’ to build a city.
Youth Museum Institute: Bat, Bird & Bug Houses
With overnight stay at Powdermill Nature Reserve
Extreme makeover—animal house edition! What makes an ideal bat cave? The coziest bird nest? Find out by exploring habitats inside and outside the museum. Improve your carpentry skills each day as you make nesting boxes for bats, birds, and bugs. Take an overnight field trip to Powdermill Nature Reserve, the museum’s environmental research center, go on a scavenger hunt to find real animal houses in the wild, and have fun designing a shelter for yourself based on animal architecture. After dinner around a campfire, the adventure continues into the night as you find the best light for attracting moths and observing other nocturnal animals. Choose to sleep under the stars or with a cabin roof over your head, and enjoy a fresh-air breakfast the next morning. The overnight trip will be chaperoned by Museum of Natural History instructors. An overnight checklist, itinerary, and additional information about Powdermill Nature Reserve will be provided upon registration. Field trip fee: $175.
July 16–20
Comics & Cartoons
Find humor and stories in art! Get inspiration from characters and settings in the museum’s collection, and then develop your own ideas into characters and collaborate with classmates to create a graphic novel and take a copy home with you at the end of the week. Use printmaking techniques to create multiple copies of your work to share with family and trade with friends.
Youth Museum Institute: Pollution Solutions
With day trip to Powdermill Nature Reserve
Take your understanding of conservation to the next level! Help our museum staff design activities and exhibits that get our visitors excited about environmental science. Experience ecological monitoring first-hand by setting up pitfall traps and other crazy contraptions for capturing insects and reptiles. Conduct oxidation and acid rain experiments. On an extended day trip, explore the streams and woodlands of Powdermill Nature Reserve, the museum’s environmental research center, and examine innovative green solutions that use natural approaches to clean up waste water and industrial pollution. Late pick-up at 6:30 p.m. on field trip day. Field trip fee: $35.
July 23–27
The Art of Performance
Get inspired by video and performance art in addition to paintings and sculptures as you bring art to life during live performances. Surprise museum campers and visitors while participating in a flash mob in the museum’s galleries and lobbies. Work with a theater specialist and studio artist to learn acting techniques, design scenery, and create costumes for the grand finale performance on Friday.
Famous Architecture
With day trip to Fallingwater
Learn about famous buildings from the classics to modern masterpieces—and spend one day at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater! Discuss what made these famous buildings into icons of architecture and design your own architectural masterpiece! Late pick-up at 6 p.m. on Fallingwater day. Field trip fee: $45.
Youth Museum Institute: Survivor Adventure
This camp is full. Please click here to place your name on the waitlist.
From basic biology to high-tech sportswear, investigate how animals and people adapt to extreme environments. Examine how natural and engineered materials support physical endurance. Put your own sensory systems and reflexes to the test as you explore animal survival instincts. Brace yourself against the elements in a rustic shelter design challenge. Build your outdoor adventuring skills by learning about basic first aid, nutrition, and hydration needs for camping and hiking. Produce a water purification system and concoct the perfect trail mix for a day hike.
July 30–August 3
Drawing & Painting on Location
With day trip to Powdermill Nature Reserve
Spend a week drawing from observation, outside of the studio. Gather your materials and take them outside—just like the Impressionists did. Hike to nearby locations including Flagstaff Hill, Schenley Plaza, Phipps Conservatory, and the Cathedral of Learning. Board our charter bus for a one-day field trip to Powdermill Nature Reserve and draw scenic landscapes. Learn atmospheric and one-point perspective to create realistic and abstract compositions. Use a variety of drawing materials and paint to create landscapes, still-lifes, and portraits. Late pick-up at 6 p.m. on field trip day. Field trip fee: $35.
Youth Museum Institute: Micro Mania
Peer at fascinating structures too small to see with your eyes alone. Prepare samples for the scanning electron microscope, help our scientists photograph them, and create a gallery of images to share with museum visitors. Collect plankton in nearby Panther Hollow Lake and visit ALCOSAN (Allegheny County Sanitary Authority) to learn how scientists use microorganisms to treat wastewater. Investigate size and scale in a museum scavenger hunt for our biggest and smallest specimens. Trap macroinvertebrates, build a plankton tow, and use a Berlese funnel to collect microorganisms from soil. Get an introduction to cell biology by experimenting with yeast. Visualize DNA with cellular staining and gel electrophoresis, techniques that molecular biologists use to uncover patterns in DNA. Field trip fee: $15.
August 6–10
Fiber Art
Fabric and fiber become your media for functional and artistic purposes. Enhance the line, color, texture, and pattern of fabric as you screen print, embellish, and paint. Get inspired by fashions and fabrics from other times and places.
Youth Museum Institute: Pure Energy
From fossil fuels to photosynthesis, investigate different forms of energy. Explore energy in unexpected places from prehistoric plankton to a windmill generator made from a recycled water bottle. Discover how your body burns calories, and compare your diet to the diets of animals and people around the world. Cook up ideas and sample treats for a line of eco-friendly and energetically balanced snacks. Learn about fossil fuels and sustainable alternatives by building a solar oven and experimenting with solar cells. Design activities to show museum visitors the green impact you want to have in your world.
August 13–17
Youth Museum Institute: Pets: Past & Present
From ancient Egyptian cats to Arctic sled dogs to a take-home bug terrarium for your bedroom, explore the relationships between people and pets. Do you know what it takes to keep animals healthy and happy? Test your knowledge and expand your skills as you learn about pet nutrition, pet first aid, and safe interactions with animals of all kinds. Decode petroglyphs—ancient rock art—to study animal domestication and hunting in past civilizations. Analyze the contents of commercial pet food and create your own recipe for a healthy pet treat. Discover the mini-ecosystems that exist on and inside animals. Meet special animal guests from the museum’s Discovery Room and from an animal-friendly organization. The week finishes up with an open house that welcomes your family and friends to raise awareness about helping local animals!