Ages: 6 - 15
Locations: Downtown Ottawa & Orléans
All materials included
Art Camps at the Ottawa School of Art are offered during March Break and throughout the summer. These week-long, in-person camps are designed for children and teens and are grouped by age range to ensure an engaging and supportive learning environment. Each camp explores a variety of art techniques and mediums—including drawing, painting, sculpture, and mixed media—guided by professional artist-instructors. Camps welcome all skill levels and focus on creativity, skill-building, and hands-on exploration.
A Creative Experience
At the Ottawa School of Art, camps are about more than keeping kids busy — they’re about building confidence, curiosity, and creative thinking. Whether your child is discovering art for the first time or already loves to create, our camps meet them where they are.
Artist-led
instruction
Camps are led by professional artist-instructors who guide campers through creative projects while encouraging curiosity and self-expression.
Skill-building
through play
Campers develop foundational art skills through hands-on activities that balance learning with experimentation and fun.
Encouraging environment
A supportive, inclusive atmosphere helps children and teens feel confident exploring new ideas at their own pace.
Finished artworks to take home
Each camper completes a variety of artworks to take home, celebrating their creativity and progress throughout the week.
Upcoming Art Camps
Creature Comforts | Ages 6 - 7
Whether your home is a house, beehive or nest, there isn’t anywhere else that’s as inviting or uniquely yours as that place we call home. With a focus on Canadians and the creatures that call Canada home, we’ll explore the structures we build for safety and comfort as well as examine the objects we furnish them with to make them meaningful.
Children will learn essential techniques in a variety of mediums, including drawing, painting, papier-mâché, and more, all while growing their confidence and pursuing self-expression.
Artful Adventures: Create and Move! | Ages 6 - 8
Unleash your energy and creativity in this art-fueled March Break camp. Kids will dive into colourful arts and crafts projects, balanced with invigorating stretch-and-play breaks of yoga-inspired activities led by a certified yoga instructor.
It’s the perfect blend of hands-on creation and mindful movement for a memorable camp experience!
Astounding Plants and Animals | Ages 8 - 9
600 million years ago, jellyfish ruled the planet! Some predators like crocodiles and sharks will cooperate with smaller animals; exchanging cleaning duties for ‘not eating them.’ Mushrooms and their root systems (mycelium) act like a fibre optic network connecting the ‘wood wide web’ and may one day save the world!
Find out how and why by spending March Break making art about this and other fascinating inhabitants of our planet.
Imagery Comics and Cartooning | Ages 9 -11
This March discover how IMAGERY will help us explore the world of art with drawing, painting, printing and cartooning (comics & stop-motion animated cartoon). Learn about and practice drawing (comics & caricature), watercolour painting (landscapes), monotype printing (collographs), and animation (stop-motion).
Treasured Sketchbooks: A Playful Mixed-Media Journey | Ages 9-12
Explore, create, and come to treasure your own unique, artful sketchbook in this mixed-media adventure. Through acrylic painting, collage, layering, and expressive brushwork, students will learn to combine color, texture, and imagination to tell visual stories. Each participant builds confidence and develops a unique artistic voice while keeping their professional sketchbook — a lasting keepsake of creativity, growth, and self-expression.
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Art Explorers (Bilingual) | Ages 9 - 12
Get ready for a week full of creativity and discovery! In this fun, hands-on art camp, young artists will experiment with a variety of materials and techniques—drawing, painting, collage, and more—while exploring new ideas. Each day brings projects designed to spark imagination, build skills, and encourage creative confidence. Campers will learn about colour, composition, and creative problem-solving in a supportive environment.
Sew Fab! Fashion Camp | Ages 9 - 12
Get ready for a week full of creativity and discovery! In this fun, hands-on art camp, young artists will experiment with a variety of materials and techniques—drawing, painting, collage, and more—while exploring new ideas.
Each day brings projects designed to spark imagination, build skills, and encourage creative confidence. Campers will learn about colour, composition, and creative problem-solving in a supportive environment.
Realm of Wonders: Fantasy Art Quest | Ages 11 - 12
Step into the world of magic, mystery, and adventure! In this fantasy-themed art camp, artists will design magical creatures, beasts, and enchanted landscapes from an imagined realm. Through drawing, painting, and creative world-building, you'll craft your own legendary story and bring an epic universe to life.
A Week with Frida Kahlo: Drawing, Painting and Oil Pastel | Ages 12 -15
Learn the basics of colour-mixing, composition and form as we discover the colour and passion of Frida Kahlo’s life and work. Develop skills in self-portraiture (including animals) using oil pastel, sketching and painting. We will share stories about Kahlo’s adventures to inspire our art creations as we look at how she used art to get through challenging times as a world-renowned female artist.
Portfolio Development - Drawing Intensive | Ages 13 - 15
Portfolio development is a camp designed to help teen artists of all skill levels build upon their foundational fine art skills. Students will spend the first half of the week studying traditional drawing techniques and practices such as, still life, portraiture, plein-air landscape, and figure drawing. The second half of camp will be open-studio style and students will have a chance to develop their own projects.
Through classroom discussions and critiques, students will gain an initial understanding of post-secondary art class settings. This camp will also involve a trip to the National Gallery of Canada where campers will have the opportunity to appreciate and discuss masterworks of fine art. After a week, campers will have a selection of completed pieces for their portfolios/applications.
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Printmaking Mayhem for Teens | Ages 13 -16
In this camp, teens will explore the medium of printmaking. Cut, glue, carve and roll to create bold, unique and repeatable designs with ink and a press. Unleash your creativity as you experiment with colors, shapes, textures, and lines, transforming your drawings and ideas into dynamic prints.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our camps are taught by professional artists and teachers and are geared towards exploring different artistic techniques and mediums such as acrylic painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography and printmaking to name a few. Individual lessons focus on different elements of art: colour, line, form etc. Major figures, trends, and periods in art history often serve as inspiration, and a trip to the National Gallery of Canada or Ottawa Art Gallery is part of some of our ByWard Market Campus camps. Focused studio work, an exploration of art history, and critical analysis of their own work, encourages older students to develop personal expression and expand aesthetic awareness. Supported by a team of summer technicians and volunteers our teachers pass on their passion for the arts in a dynamic and stimulating environment. Young artists have the opportunity to celebrate their success through an end-of-camp exhibition of their work on the last afternoon of camp.
Our summer camps for 2025 run from July 7 until August 29 with a total of 8 weeks of 1-week visual art day camps for children and teens, ages 4-15.
Each camp is designed for children within a specific age-range. In order to ensure the best experience for everyone, students must fall within the indicated age range for the camp.
Please contact us if you have questions or concerns regarding this. Exceptions are made at the discretion of the instructor.
Due to the fact that some of our students have allergies, we are a nut-free classroom (peanuts and tree nuts). All snacks sent in with your child must be free of tree nuts, peanuts and peanut oil (this includes peanut butter). We cannot guarantee a 100% nut- free zone, however, we make every effort to ensure the safety of children with allergies.
Camps hold a maximum of 12 children (Orleans) and 15 (downtown).
Some courses using specialized studios have a smaller maximum classroom size.
For the camps aged 6-12, there is 1 instructor and 1 student technician. For the camps aged 13-15, there is 1 instructor. Unfortunately, OSA is unable to provide additional support in the studio over the regular school 1:14 ratio; if you child requires more support, please advise us of the arrangements you have made for them in their summer camp. We appreciate your understanding.
Camps normally range in price from $335 – $395 depending on duration, material costs, and whether there are models during the camp.
Various field trips are held throughout the camps: At both campuses children go out most days to a local park during the lunch hour (weather dependent). ByWard Campus campers also go to ByWard Market and National Gallery of Canada. Please ensure your child has the appropriate outerwear to go on these excursions.
For 2025 summer camps we offer post-camp care only Monday through Thursday (no post-care is available on Fridays).
Many of our camps are offered in both official languages. Bilingual camps are marked as bilingual and include a French description.
You may register in person at the reception desk, at one of our two campuses, by phone, or online at www.registration.artottawa.ca. When registering in person, you may pay by cash, cheque, credit card (Visa or MasterCard only, please note there is a 2.5% credit card surcharge), or Interac; by phone or online, we accept credit cards only (Visa or MasterCard).
Payment in full must be made at the time of registration. The Ottawa School of Art accepts cash, cheque, VISA or MasterCard credit cards and INTERAC debit cards. NOTE: There is a $25 administration charge (+ HST) on all NSF cheques and a 2.5% credit card surcharge on all credit card payments.
We urge you to register early, at least two weeks prior to commencement of the course. Space will not be reserved without full payment. The Ottawa School of Art reserves the right to cancel any class due to insufficient enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances.
Please note that as a not-for-profit organization, the Ottawa School of Art charges an annual family membership fee of $30 (plus tax). This membership entitles you to take classes at the school, take part in members’ exhibitions, sell artwork through the school store, rent studio space and facilities, and a 10% discount on art supplies purchased from Wallack’s. Membership fees are not refundable.
Click here to view our cancellation policy document
The Ottawa School of Art reserves the right to cancel any class due to insufficient enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances. On rare occasions, a camp may be cancelled due to low enrollment, however, every effort is made to transfer any students registered in that camp to another similar camp. If this is not possible, the course fee will be fully refunded, with no administrative charges applied. OSA makes every effort to give as much notice as possible in the event of camp cancellation.
An educational receipt can be e-mailed upon request if the parent or guardian contacts us. The receipt will be issued to the person who registered the participant(s). Please e- mail program_officer@artottawa.ca