RACHEL ANNE SEYMOUR/St. Joseph News-Press

Zane Stokes, 8, names his newly created dinosaurs during the fimo class of Artscape at Missouri Western State University's Potter Hall on Tuesday. Artscape is a week-long summer enrichment program hosted by the Allied Arts Coundil and Missouri Western Music and Art Departments. The children rotate through several 50-minute classes, which include drawing, basket weaving, Tinwork, dance and more.

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When visiting the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., art educator Mary Helen Stuber was amazed at the ornamental tin work children were creating in a class there. It’s a craft the people of Santa Fe developed during the mid-1800s using tin cans brought in by the military.

They would roll the cans flat and cut them, turning them into colorful mirrors, picture frames and Christmas ornaments, much like their Mexican ancestors did.

Stuber decided that this was something children in St. Joseph would like to do, too, so she bought 36-gauge aluminum, bright Mexican colors of magenta, purple and green and all the supplies to make picture frames and ornaments. Then she taught children how to do it at last year’s Artscape, a week-long summer creative arts camp sponsored by the Allied Arts Council and Missouri Western State University.

“The kids loved it,” Stuber says. “That was one of the things they wanted back.”

So she’ll be teaching the New Mexican tin work class again at this year’s Artscape, being held Aug. 4 through 8, at Potter Hall on the Missouri Western campus. It will be one of 14 classes offered to students, including basket weaving, water color, jewelry design, mask making, acting, folk dancing, paper quilts, salt dough and wood sculpture, postal art, two-dimensional design, stained glass, colored pencil drawing and percussion. Students can choose six classes when attending the all-day session from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Or three classes during the half day sessions: either 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. or 12:15 to 3:30 p.m.

The camp have been so well received that parents have asked if they can take classes, too.

“We hear that every year,” laughs Cathy Ketter, operations manager for the Allied Arts Council. “But we’ve never figured out a way to really make it work for adults.”

Artscape is open to all children entering third through 10th grades. Fees are $95 for full days or $70 for half days, which includes a camp T-shirt. Some courses have an additional $5 supply fee. Enrollment is limited to 15 per class. To receive an enrollment brochure or for more information, call Cathy Ketter at 233-0231. The deadline to register is July 23.