Kids ‘art attack’ the city with Berkeley summer camp

The chalk drawings that covered the stairs leading to the Marin Circle on Tuesday; short poems and collages found tucked under windshield wipers on cars along Marin Avenue last week; the brightly colored string that stretched between posts at Albany Bulb. If Berkeleyans thought that renegade artists had invaded the city, they wouldn’t be far wrong. After we posted a photograph of the stair art on Berkeleyside’s Facebook page, it emerged that the striking work was by campers at the Westside Studio summer art camp, run by Jenn Burke and based in West Berkeley. The theme of the camp last week was installation art, and the young artists – most under the age of 10 – embraced the idea enthusiastically. This is the third year of an installation art-themed camp, said Burke. The idea was inspired by the existing street and installation art in Berkeley, and by the kids’ interests. Many street artists have classical training, said Burke, and they turn to the street to show their work to a wider audience than those who would visit a gallery, or because of a dislike of the gallery system itself. It’s an incredible art form, she said — “it’s not just painting down on a […]