Thank you all for an inspiring season of creativity! Please join us in 2026.
CraftNOW Create – Summer Camp Edition!
Welcome to Philadelphia’s biggest free art class!
Together with Philadelphia’s Department of Parks and Recreation, CraftNOW Create brings the wonder and imagination of the craft studio into every Philadelphia neighborhood.
Our partner organizations are coordinating their efforts to ensure we can offer an in-person craft workshop at all of Parks and Recreation’s 129 summer camps across the city. This program will deliver approximately 10,000 hours of craft instruction and reach up to 6,000 campers!
In addition, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be providing take-home kits with art supplies and a free pass to the museum.
To learn more about participating in our immersive gap week camps, please visit https://www.craftnowphila.org/gap-week/
Made possible by Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust, the Howard Family Gift Fund and the Robbins de Beaumont Foundation
Education Partners and Activities
Fabric Workshop Museum: Friendship stars
Gap Week
Friendship stars have been sewn into quilts for centuries to symbolize the bonds of friendship, love, and community. Make your own friendship star print using screenprinting techniques, then embellish the design with mixed media to commemorate the friendships in your own life.
DIY Opitcal Illusion Spinners
Main Camp
In this hands-on activity, you’ll build a tabletop spinner using simple materials, then create your own optical illusion with colorful patterns. Once your spinner is complete, give it a whirl and see how it spins! Whether you’re designing something simple or complex, every spin brings a new surprise.
The Clay Studio's "Claymobile"
The Clay Studio is bringing a pop-up ceramics studio (The Claymobile) to the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation summer camps! Professional teaching artists from The Clay Studio will bring all of the clay and supplies needed to complete your own ceramics project!
Movement in Collage
Students will be cutting strips of high quality, bright, patterned paper and adhering them with glue to a sheet of paper. We will start from a center point and work our way out until the paper is covered. Some students will choose to work with a color scheme while others may favor pattern. Ultimately I want the students to create a sense of motion from a two dimensional collage.
Mosaic Making
Main Camp
Campers will create a mosaic piece using one of two projects: 1) A mixed media mosaic using traditional mosaic materials like vitreous glass tile, broken pottery and ceramic tiles, beads and found objects or 2) A Dried Bean mosaic using a variety of shapes and colors of dried beans. Both projects will be adhered to a piece of foamcore board ( in the 6×6 or 8×8 size).
Philadelphia's Magic Gardens
For the Gap Week, campers will explore the Magic Gardens Museum, after which they’ll nmake a small mosaic of their own, using glass beads, small tiles, pull-tabs, seashells, beans, buttons, and more.
For Main Camp, Students will create a “faux stained glass” sun catcher using Elmer’s glue, plexiglass, and colored acetate.
Decorate-A-Tote
Gap Week
In this immersive activity, Carla Carpenter, member of The Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers, will guide campers into the wonderful world of self customization with the opportunity to decorate a tote bag & take it home!
Shakers: History in Handmade Objects
Main Camp
In this community-centered, hands-on workshop, participants will create and decorate their own shakers using recycled water bottles and natural found materials. Inspired by shekere and shaker traditions from West Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, and across the African diasporas, the workshop connects art-making, music, and cultural learning through accessible and creative craft practices. As the shakers take shape, campers will engage in rhythm-based activities including call-and-response, movement, listening exercises, and collaborative music-making.
Abstract Extravvaganza!
Main Camp.
Students will create a multimedia art piece inspired by Jasper Johns’s work “According to What.” Using canvas, colored pencils, stamps, and more students will learn how artists combine materials to make something abstract and playful.
Questions?