The East End of Long Island, including the North Fork and the Hamptons, is known for its beautiful landscapes, beaches, farms, and vineyards, but that’s not all it has to offer. There is no shortage of art-forward activities for families and children to enjoy all summer long. Whether you are a summer resident or a weekend visitor, we have you covered with a list of the best art-related camps, workshops, and experiences for kids of all ages.
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VEME Art Studio
Image Credit: VEME Art Studio. VEME Art Studio in Greenport is a magical place to create, explore, shop, and get inspired. It features local artwork on the walls and a nicely curated selection of goods. The studio offers a variety of workshops for adults and a summer camp for children 5–12 years old. The summer program runs mornings in July and August. Campers start with stretching and a mindfulness practice, then work in their sketchbooks, draw, make paintings or collages, and more. Weather permitting, camp is held outdoors. VEME also has an “art bar” where visitors of all ages can pop in and choose from a menu of different mediums, then sit down to create. Your time at the art bar is unguided, but there are plenty of books to help inspire you if you’re feeling stuck.
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Crafts on the Move
Image Credit: Crafts on the Move. Spark your child’s creativity with a workshop at Crafts on the Move, an art-supply store and crafting center in Aquebogue. This lovely space, opened in the fall of 2023, offers workshops for adults and kids. For children 6 years and older, these include “Build a Light House Note Pad”; for kids 8 and up, there’s a make-your-own “Camping Mini Album” and “Explore Gel Printing,” where crafters create prints using a variety of materials from the store. Classes here are small, so make sure you reserve in advance, and note that parental supervision is required. If your schedule doesn’t align with any of their workshops, it is still a great place to look around, get inspiration, and stock up on crafting supplies for all your summer projects. Crafts on the Move also has a seasonal Youth Craft Challenge Program that encourages kids to get crafty. The projects completed in the challenges go on display in the store at the end of each challenge.
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Parrish Art Museum
Image Credit: Parrish Art Museum. The Parrish Art Museum, in Water Mill, is enjoyable for children and families. Kids can run around the expansive meadows looking at native flowers and whimsical sculptures, and there is an art studio where classes of many kinds are held. On select Saturdays, Parrish also offers drop-in open-studio sessions where children can work with a variety of different mediums; adult supervision is required. These classes are free with museum admission. The next one is on July 27. The Parrish Museum has a theater featuring concerts, dance performances, films, special events, and talks. It even has outdoor movie screenings open to all ages in the warmer months. As for the museum itself, the galleries have a great selection of work in small spaces that make viewing the art more digestible for children. There is a cafe as well. If you can’t make it to the museum, you can take advantage of its great online catalog of art projects and crafts to enjoy with your kids at home.
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North Fork Art Collective
Image Credit: North Fork Art Collective. Don’t miss an opportunity to take your children to the North Fork Art Collective at the Fiedler Gallery to view some playful artwork from the local community. The gallery, in Greenport, is open on weekends or by appointment and is housed in a charming two-story building. The current art collective exhibit is “Best Kept Secret,” through August, followed by “A Sense of Place,” opening August 31. Children and teens may be especially drawn to the whimsical work of artist, curator, and owner Kara Hoblin. She works in many mediums but is best known for her chalk drawings, which can be seen all over the North Fork and across the United States. She also wrote a children’s book, The East End A to Z, which takes readers on an enriching journey through the East End of Long Island with a little help from the alphabet.
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East End Arts
Image Credit: East End Arts. East End Arts in Riverhead has everything your creative child could want: galleries, recording studios, concerts, street fairs, and year-round art and music classes with an extensive summer camp program. Weeklong camp sessions run through July and August for kids ages 5 to 14. There are two types of camps: Kids Summer Camp (ages 5–10), which introduces young minds to art, theater, and music inspired by children’s books; and Fine Arts Camp (ages 10–14), a specialized program that focuses on painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. For your musical progeny, East End also offers band and vocal camps in which children are exposed to new instruments and work with their peers to create new music.
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Brooklyn Sewcial Summer Camp
Image Credit: Brooklyn Sewcial. Have an aspiring fashion designer in your family? Brooklyn Sewcial offers a sewing camp in Aquebogue for kids aged 7–14. This four-day camp, taught by Alexa Ward (me), the author of Sewing for Kids: 30 Fun Projects to Hand and Machine Sew, teaches youngsters how to sew on a machine and by hand while making some really cool projects to bring home. Some projects this summer include a backpack, a shirt, and quilted stuffed snakes. You will be amazed and impressed by the things your kid will come home with. Class sizes are small to allow individualized attention, so make sure to reserve a spot ASAP.
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Guild Hall
Image Credit: Guild Hall. A mixture of educational facility, theater, performing arts center, and museum, Guild Hall, in East Hampton, has a lot to offer families that want to enjoy both looking at and making art. This summer’s offerings include an interactive exhibit created by the painter Eric Fischl, open July through September, Friday–Monday from noon to 5 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to create their own paintings using magnetic figure cutouts from Fischl’s work, or they can make their own cutouts. This is a great way to explore art with your kids and a playful way to teach children about perspective and narrative. Entry to the museum and galleries is free. In the theater, you won’t want to miss Bubblemania—Comedy…with a Drip! on August 21. The show will feature live music and bubble art, including giant bubbles big enough to trap people. Every few months Guild Hall hosts Ola Family Day with drop-in workshops and family film screenings. The next one, on September 15, is inspired by the museum’s upcoming exhibition, “Julian Schnabel: Selected Works from Home” (August 4–October 27).
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Art Barge
Image Credit: Art Barge. Located on the shore of Napeague Harbor in Amagansett, the Art Barge hosts art classes for all ages. It occupies an old Navy barge that Victor D’Amico, founding director of education at the Museum of Modern Art, and artist/educator Mabel D’Amico transformed to include classroom and studio spaces. The summer program, called the Art Barge Children’s Carnival, focuses each week on a different age group (6–8 years, 9–11 years, and 12–14 years). Students work both indoors and outdoors in a variety of mediums: drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture. This is a great option for older kids who are serious about art and want something that focuses on their skill level and interests. If you are interested in learning more about the Art Barge or Victor and Mabel D’Amico, you can take a tour of their home, which they built themselves.
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Little Moments Little Fam
Image Credit: Little Moments Little Fam. For the youngest artist in your crew, Little Moments Little Fam has sensory classes to get the creative juices flowing. Its interactive experiences, including a Tie-Dye Party and a Summer Flower Bar, are filled with rainbows of color, loads of textures, and multisensory activities. The company has pop-up classes all over Suffolk County, including summer sessions at Horton’s Flower Farm in Riverhead on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Little Moments Little Fam is flexible about where and when they host their classes, so if you have something specific in mind, you can reach out to them on their website and arrange a class or an adorable birthday party for your toddler. You can stay in the loop with their weekly classes by following them on Instagram, where you will also find inspiration for ways to play with your little ones at home.