Session 2, Day 1: It Begins!

Good afternoon everyone! My name is James and I am your awesome coordinator for this amazing, outstanding, and adventuresome Session Two of Arts-X-press. I'm here to keep you up to date about the latest and greatest artistic moments that your "young artists" have been kept busy doing. Trust me, we've kept them busy and it's only three o'clock in the afternoon.

It was so fun to welcome all your artists to Vanguard today! Normally most of the kids are nervous as heck, but there's something about this group that made them open up pretty quickly. We have a lot of GREAT personalities, and I can tell that this group is going to have an amazing week.

Once we had them drop off them luggage in our ultra-secure dorms, we had our enthusiastic counselors break the ice with them by playing new games (check out the photos in this post!). I'm not quite sure if I understood what they were playing, but I heard a LOT of laughing and saw a LOT of smiling (and some sweating), all of which are awesome things :)

After new games, we got to have the opportunity to test out their "nonverbal communication skills" by working with the entire group to make shapes that we called out- and they couldn't speak a word! (dun dun dun) I know, you're thinking "What?! My child not saying a word?!" Well it happened... kinda. Let's just say their shape building abilities can use more work. And more particularly, distinguishing between a "circle," "rectangle," and "the letter C." Homework!

Once all of that mess subsided... LUNCH! Let me tell you, these kids devoured the food and I heard nothing from them but how amazing it was. Between the ravioli, pasta, potatoes, fruit, salad, and chicken, they fell in love. You can rest assured that they are well fed and will have no problem with their dietary habits. You know what they say: "A full belly, is an artistic belly." That's our motto here at Arts-X-press.

Drumroll please... finally the moment your artists were waiting for came... ARTS WORKSHOPS! Yes, they finally got to find out which art workshop they got placed into (either Dance, Vocal Music, Instrumental Music, Theater, or Visual Art). Those days and days of them worrying and freaking out about which workshop they got have now ended. With our overly cool and creative teachers announcing their students, they were off! I don't want to give away anything for the parent presentation, but let me just say that they are whipping up some crazy cool stuff for y'all. It's artistically legit.

The best part of the experience for the students is seeing some of them have a blast in art workshops they never even thought they would be in. It has only been the first day, but a lot of students are already having a great time and enjoying their time. That's what we're all about: taking risks! Hopefully now they'll come back home to you and take those risks, like cleaning their rooms!

In the spirit of keeping the artists ever engaged until they tire their little minds out, we've now whisked them away to their Creative Expression (CE) classes! Creative Expression is a time for the artists to actively stretch their creative muscles to make crafts, art, do lots of writing and reflecting, and to express themselves about how their experience at Arts-X-press is slowly but surely changing their life. You'll be hearing much more about CE soon I promise.

After CE, we will be equipping the artists with the latest Pacific Symphony Arts-X-press t-shirts (they're all the rage in Paris) and heading over to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater for "The Three Phantoms!" It's sure to be an amazing concert.

Check back on our blog later for more updates from myself, our counselors, and our crazy cool staff! Stay classy, Arts-X-press parents.