Summer Camps
Every summer, we host a series of day camps for local students. In 2026, we're bringing back the Vagabond Time Killers universe we debuted in 2025!
All weekly sessions are organized around a story based in Wassaic’s mythical past. While each camp stands alone, we ask that you please share the story below with your child ahead of time — every camp and every camper has a role in the universe, and will contribute to a final end-of-summer extravaganza on August 15!
Campers will also participate in the specific camp activities described below and general camp fun like swimming in the creek, exploring our 2026 Summer Exhibition, playing soccer, free drawing, roasting marshmallows, and group games. We ask that campers be present for all days of camp: this is important for the group dynamic and the creative journeys we embark on together.
Registration
Opens January 27 at 11 AM
Sign up for our emails to be reminded →
Scholarships
We have a no-questions-asked scholarship policy to ensure our education programming is accessible to everyone who wants to participate. If the cost of camp presents a significant financial barrier, please reach out to jill@wassaicproject.org for a partial or full scholarship.
Summer 2026 Schedule
June 29–July 3
Piano Wreckers' Ball (Grades 6–10) ($475)
+ Sculpture Camp (Grades 5-9) ($475)
July 6–10
Art Scouts (Grades 2–5) ($375)
July 13–17
Art Scouts (Grades 2–5) ($375)
July 6–17
Film Camp (Grades 6–10) ($950)
July 20–24
Art Scouts (Grades 2–5) ($375)
+ Quilt Camp (Grades 5–9) ($475)
July 27–31
Art Scouts (Grades 2–5) ($375)
+ 2D, 3D, 4D (Grades 6–10) ($475)
August 3–15
Theater Camp (Grades 5–10) ($950)
+ Music Camp (Grades 5–10) ($950)
August 15, 4 PM
End-of-summer extravaganza — all campers and families are encouraged to attend!
Unless otherwise noted, camps are held Mon–Thur, 9:30 AM–3:30 PM
+ Fri 9:30 AM–4:30 PM
We ask that campers be present for all days of camp, including the show-and-tell each Friday from 3:30–4:30 PM. This is important for the group dynamic and the creative journeys we embark on together!
Summer 2026 Camp Details
Art Scouts
4 weeks · Rising grades 2–5 · $375/week
July 6–10: World is Lava!
July 13–17: Deep Sea Explorers
July 20–24: It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane!
July 27–31: Subterranean Spelunking
Art Scouts camps are for our younger creative explorers. Scouts will join instructor Emi Night in embarking on creative projects indoors and outdoors, inspired by the Vagabond Time Killers universe, our 2026 Summer Exhibition, and their own imaginations. Activities may include map making, paper marbling, kite crafting, clay sculpting, natural tie-dying, flower pressing, rock gathering, and much more! We’ll play games, explore the creek, see and make art, and have lots of fun!
Each session of Art Scouts will take on a different era and place visited by the Vagabond Time Killers, contributing to a group mural or backdrop as per the camp theme.
The Piano Wreckers’ Ball
June 29–July 3 · Rising grades 6–10 · $475
Do you like to break stuff? Do you like to figure out how it worked before you broke it? Do you like building things that nobody’s ever imagined before? Do you like music?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then The Piano Wreckers’ Ball is for you! Alongside DJ and musician Tim Love Lee, we will carefully, but with great vigor, demolish old, donated pianos and other hunks of household junk and reassemble them into brand new instruments, or maybe even one giant mobile musical laboratory. After we’ve invented our new instruments, we’ll learn to play them and compose music for the end-of-summer extravaganza on August 15. No previous experience is necessary, but kids should be prepared to wield tools and get dirty!
* Campers will use tools such as drills and hand saws during the course of this camp — always under adult supervision, wearing personal protective equipment, and after receiving safety training. Please consider this when signing up for camp!
Sculpture Camp: The Squish Collective w/ Katie Peck!
June 29–July 3 · Rising grades 5–9 · $475
In this camp, kids will design and build amazing sculptures using flexible materials like fabric, paper, and lightweight plastics. We’ll explore how flat materials can turn into big, squishy, three-dimensional creations by stuffing them, inflating them with air, or helping them stand up with simple structures inside.
Campers will learn where soft sculptures come from. Everything from giant parade balloons and airships to playful artworks made by artists today. Through hands-on experiments, kids will discover different ways to make soft forms and bring their own ideas to life. Campers will work on individual projects, but everyone will also work together to design and build a large collaborative soft sculpture, combining individual ideas into one exciting group creation to share and celebrate as part of the final Vagabond Time Killers experience on August 15!
Film Camp
July 6–17, Mon–Fri · Rising grades 6–10 · $950
Now two weeks!
Last year’s camp was such a success we’ve decided to expand it to two weeks so that kids can be even more involved in the filmmaking process.
Join filmmakers Chris May and Daniel Pravit Fethke in the creation of an original short film telling an original story from the Vagabond Time Killers universe. Campers will perform in and produce all aspects of the film, learning camera, lighting, sound, and editing basics plus the ins and outs of filmmaking collaboration along the way. This camp requires no prior experience and not all campers need to act or perform in front of the camera, but we do ask for flexibility: you may be asked to hold a light, wrap a cord, or provide a sound effect. Every role is essential on set! The film will premiere as part of the final performance on August 15.
On Friday of the second week, July 17, please plan to attend the film premiere from 3:30–4:30 PM!
Quilt Camp
July 20–24 · Rising grades 5–9 · $475
Join artist Natalie Baxter for a week of sewing, quilting, and soft sculpture making. Campers will learn all aspects of quilt making; piecing with a sewing machine, hand stitching, and binding to create their own quilt to take home. Throughout the week we will learn about artists who use fabric, quilting, and soft sculpture in their practices. Together, we will come up with soft sculpture works to construct for the end-of-summer extravaganza on August 15.
2D, 3D, 4D
July 27–31 · Rising grades 6–10 · $475
Welcome drawers, painters, sculptors, cardboard crafters! In this camp we will draw, paint, sculpt with clay, and craft with cardboard, wire, paper mache, and found materials. Led by artists Taha Clayton and Manivone Nonthaveth, students will learn a variety of 2D and 3D techniques, including hand-built ceramics, drawing fundamentals, and experimental printmaking. We will explore and gather inspiration from our 2026 Summer Exhibition, visit artist studios, and learn about relevant contemporary art. Campers will also be responsible for contributing a time travel element to the final performance (for example, last year’s campers built the time machine that the Vagabond Time Killers used to travel through time!).
Music Camp: The Unruly Band of Renegade Music Makers
August 3–15 · Rising grades 5–10 · $950
Now two weeks to fit in a combination of the renowned Rock Band Camp of years’ past AND the incredible original collaboration resulting in a totally unique soundtrack for the Vagabond Time Killers final performance!
Do you like to hum a tune? Play drums on the dining room table? Sing along with the vacuum cleaner? Maybe you have a favorite song you’d like to see performed exactly the way you hear it in your head, or maybe there’s a sonic soundtrack like nobody’s ever dreamed of hiding in that pile of junk in the back of our barn, or perhaps you just need to rock out. Music-minded kids of all capabilities are invited to bring their craziest ideas and a desire to have fun with songs and sound.
The Unruly Band will develop and perform the soundtrack for the end-of-summer extravaganza, including their moment in the spotlight as they perform a song live on stage!
Theater Camp: The Wayward Theatre Troupe
August 3–15 · Rising grades 5–10 · $950
Calling actors, prop handlers, costume designers, set-builders, comedians, stunt doubles, and all lovers of the stage: there is a place for you here in the Wassaic Project theater!
Members of the Wayward Theatre Troupe will perform an original play telling the tale of how the Vagabond Time Killers travel through time to find the left sock of Leslie Galapagos and bring it back as an offering to the rattlesnakes. It will be wild, weird, funny, heartfelt, and one-of-a-kind (think Monty Python and The Princess Bride in spirit). Roles will include the Vagabond Time Killers themselves, the wizard Azorazad, the troll Inan Doubt, the mad emus the Mothers, the Rattlesnake Chorus, and more. Everyone will participate in the hands-on elements of the production, such as the making of props, costumes, and special effects, but we may ask kids to specialize in one area (for example, maybe you are really into hair and makeup and want a smaller acting part). We will audition and cast roles once our group is assembled. No prior experience is necessary, and if a camper isn’t interested in acting but is interested in backstage activities, they are still very encouraged to sign up! This camp will be led by teacher and director, Adriana Varanko.
The camp will culminate in the performance of Book 2: The Sock Lost in Quicksand, in collaboration with the Unruly Band of Renegade Music Makers, on Saturday, August 15, at 4 PM!
Vagabond Time Killers: The Origin Story
Welcome to the town of Whatthewhat, a magical place in a steep valley where fairies build villages in tree roots, apples ripen to the color of indigo, and when you dig a hole in the ground, you never know where it will come out. The moon is always visible in the sky and the water flows uphill (except on Mondays). To enter and leave, you must tell a joke to the bridge troll Inan Doubt, and everyone trades in the blue rocks called slag strewn through the riverbeds. Pantyhose the Billy Goat roams the hills and the horses three, Charlemagne, Antoinette, and Bob, graze happily on the grassy slopes of Rattlesnake Mountain. Here dwell the Vagabond Time Killers, a group of kids expert at killin’ time, the wizard Azorazad who guards the top-secret time machine, and the Unruly Band of Renegade Music Makers, who perform never-before-heard works of music on never-before-seen instruments.
One afternoon, the Vagabond Time Killers were hard at work killing time. They were launching homemade rockets high into the sky, but when they ran out of rocket fuel they decided instead to use chunks of slag. The blast went wrong and caused the entire town of Whatthewhat to shake and quake and the hundreds of slumbering snakes on Rattlesnake Mountain to awaken. The snakes had been asleep for 203 years! They did not appreciate being disturbed. Old Gray Beard, the Keeper of the Rattlesnakes, interpreted the snakes’ hissing and delivered a message to the Vagabonds: they had to find and bring back the tooth of a sabertooth tiger!
Last year, the Vagabond Time Killers were successful in their quest, and retrieved the tooth. The snakes were appeased and settled into fitful slumber for another year. But they are awake again! And demanding another offering, as interpreted by Old Gray Beard, the Keeper of the Rattlesnakes:
They request the left sock lost by their long ago love, Leslie Galapagos. They miss her dearly. Leslie Galapagos was a renowned scientist from Whatthewhat known for her brave explorations and fearless observations. She discovered the rattlesnakes upon a desert island in the year 1693 and under the hot desert sun, the scientist and the rattlesnakes fell in love. During a romantic evening stroll, however, Leslie stepped into some quicksand and lost her shoe and sock. She was able to fish out her shoe, but the sock was lost–seemingly forever. Vagabond Time Killers–you are tasked with traveling through time and space to find Leslie’s sock and bring it back as an offering to the rattlesnakes. Beware, they say! There is quicksand everywhere upon the island. Tread carefully.
Join the Vagabond Time Killers in restoring balance to the town of Whatthewhat! With the help (or sometimes hindrance) of Azorazad the Wizard, Pantyhose the Billy Goat, the troll Inan Doubt, the inventor Eddie, the mad emu Mother, the Unruly Band of Renegade Music Makers, the Keeper of the Rattlesnakes himself, Old Gray Beard, and many more friends, the Vagabond Time Killers will travel into the beyond. Will they succeed in their mission of retrieving the lost left sock of Leslie Galapagos? Only time will tell.
We need you to join on this adventure!
✦ ✦ ✦
Each summer the rattlesnakes will request something new, so each year of camps will be a new installment in the Vagabond Time Killers’ quest! Keep your eyes peeled for future productions like The Spare Power Plug of the Space Station, The Tea Cup of the Arctic Explorer, The Missing Last Brick in the Hoover Dam, The Love Note from the Robot to the Tree, and onward!
FAQ
What is your refund/cancellation policy?
We will issue a refund minus 20% for cancellations received two weeks in advance of the camp start date. There will be no refunds of cancellation notices received within two weeks, as it is difficult for us to fill the spots on such close notice, and we operate within a narrow budget. We will waive this policy in the event of an emergency or hardship — please email jill@wassaicproject.org should you need to request this.
Why does camp cost what it costs?
The Wassaic Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and all tuition goes into the many varied costs of running camp, including paying our staff, training, purchasing materials and equipment, snacks, games, general building costs such as utilities and insurance, and other hard costs. Tuition from paid camp spots also ensures that we continue to be able to offer no-questions-asked scholarships, which has been our camp policy as long as we have run camps! We believe accessible education programming benefits all participants. If you are able to pay full cost, please know that you are enabling camp families who may not be able to otherwise afford camp to participate.
What is an average camp day like?
Camp is different every day, but each day follows a similar structure. Usually camps begin with quiet making time to ease into the day, followed by an activity block, then an hour of lunch and free time at noon (we usually go to a different spot every day based on what the campers want to do). Right after lunch is usually another hour and a half activity block, followed by creek swimming, group games, or something like roasting marshmallows or visiting the horses. And then it’s the end of the day!
Who will be teaching camp?
We are so proud to welcome back some instructors we have worked with in the past, as well as some new faces this year. All camp leaders are seasoned educators and they are each well-vetted and undergo a background check. Our camp counselors come either through our Varsity Arts Club (our afterschool program for high school students), through referral, or through our many-year collaboration with the Northeast Community Center in Millerton, NY.
Where does camp take place?
All camps meet at Maxon Mills at 37 Furnace Bank Road in Wassaic, NY each morning. Pick-up is here as well. This is our central meeting place, even as camps may move around the campus of Wassaic. This includes Wassaic Park, which is reachable by walking path along the railroad tracks or the road behind Pawling Corp. This is often where we access the creek as well. We also swim in the creek across from the Mill by the chapel. We use the Luther Barn (the big green barn behind 19 Furnace Bank Road), the field of Luther Barn, the rail trail, and Gridley Chapel, across from the Mill. Art Scouts will be based out of the new, ground-floor Art Nest in the Mill. Other camp locations are TBA.
What happened to after-camp camp?
Last year we offered after-camp care until 5 PM, but didn’t see enough demand to financially justify doing it again this year. Reach out if you want us to offer it next year and we will take note!
What are your safety measures?
We always have someone on-site who is certified in CPR and first aid (and aim to have all of our camp leaders certified). We will always have a lifeguard on duty during creek swims. We have first aid kits on site for all camp activities. We also ask you to share any health information that helps us keep your camper safe and cared for! There is an ambulance parked just up the road for emergency situations, and we make sure that camper emergency contact information is easily accessible to all camp leaders.
How did the Vagabond Time Killers theme come to be?
In considering how to create a more holistic, unifying, and magical experience for campers, we thought, hey, what if all of the camps were connected by a single story, and contributed to bringing that story to life? What if each summer was connected to the summer before, and younger kids could look forward to taking on recurring roles when they are old enough to be part of The Wayward Theatre Troupe? We were inspired by a photo found by Wassaic Project Co-Director Jeff Barnett-Winsby, which shows a group of young people in the woods in 1901. On the back of the photo is scrawled, “Vagabond Time Killers, Wassaic, NY.” We know nothing more about these players, but they seem like mischievous, fun-seeking creatives, and apt as a jumping off point for our own tale. We took inspiration as well from local legends, characters, and landmarks, such as the very real Pantyhose the Billy Goat who used to roam the Luther Barn, and the blue rocks called slag found everywhere in the dirt of our valley which are a byproduct of the iron mining that used to take place here. We drew from the imaginations of our campers and afterschool programs, the artists who come to live and work here, and the locals who are the foundation of this town.
What will happen next year, and the year after?
We plan to continue building our summers around new installments in the Vagabond Time Killers saga, and will bring in campers to come up with new parts of the story.
How do the camps fit into the Wassaic Project as a whole?
Our residency and exhibition programs are active year round, and camp happens right alongside all the other happenings of the Wassaic Project. This means that campers will visit and learn about the artwork in the Wassaic Project summer exhibition, interact with and meet the professional artists who come to live and work as residents in Wassaic, and learn about how and why this arts nonprofit works!
What does my camper need to bring to camp?
Campers should come prepared to spend time outdoors! Please send them in shoes they can run and explore in, clothes they don’t mind getting dirty or painty, and with a hat, sunscreen, bug spray–whatever they need to be comfortable outside. Campers should also come with swim stuff everyday, including a bathing suit, towel, and creek shoes. Please no flip-flops, and we have lost quite a few Crocs downstream, so be aware if that’s your creek shoe of choice. Old sneakers, Keens, jellies — all of these are great. Campers should also come each day with a full water bottle, a snack, and a packed lunch.
Question not answered above? Contact our Education Coordinator, jill@wassaicproject.org.
