In other news, High School Camp concluded last Saturday. But before we say farewell to Camp this summer, we present a profile of faculty and student experience in a similar style to the Elementary Camp and Middle School Camp profiles of previous weeks. The following piece, written by departing SFAC staff member Jacob Peterson, is based on interviews with several students and faculty members who were here studying and teaching during High School Session:

Sitka Fine Arts Camp is the kind of place where students can try all kinds of things, embracing a variety of disciplines regardless of skill level. For many campers, summer at SFAC is their first exposure to professional artists. What better way to ignite a lifelong interest in the arts than by working with artists whose lives are marked, defined by their practice of their craft.

One thing I've realized from talking with many SFAC faculty members over the course of the SFAC summer is that there are a few recurring objectives: building community, developing life skills, encouraging collaboration and sociability--and without exception, sharing the transformative power of the arts with kids from all over the state of Alaska, from elsewhere in the United States, and even from countries outside of the United States. This year, we had a total student enrollment of 784, with 45 Alaskan Communities, 20 states, and 3 countries (US, China, Norway) represented at Camp. These are exciting numbers and represent an unprecedented diversity of student experience. Students are bringing a wealth of unique perspectives to their classes, significantly elevating the overall Camp experience.

Amy Butcher, a member of the writing faculty during High School Camp, spoke with me one day after her poetry class in Fraser about her teaching philosophy, student progress, and the democratic nature of courses at SFAC--everyone's voice is valuable. In her classes, instead of hard critiques, "it's mostly about immersion, and exploration, and creation of this safe place where we can try and fail, or try and succeed."

  On sunny days, students take their classwork to the lawn - photo by Alethea Busch