School’s out! But that doesn’t mean art can’t be a part of your summer. June through August, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) offers youth camps and community centers free interactive art experiences at the museum and throughout Miami-Dade County with PAMM in the Neighborhood. This two-part program includes artist-led conversations and art-making at campsites, along with artist-led tours at the museum with a new theme each summer.
We sat down with Kerry Keeler, PAMM’s manager of outreach programs, who launched the program in 2003.
Tell us the history of PAMM in the Neighborhood and why you felt there was a need to start the program in 2003.
PAMM in the Neighborhood is one of the many programs that make up the museum’s robust art education program, the largest outside the Miami-Dade County public school system. I created this program in 2003 as a way to bring art to as many summer camp youth as possible, county-wide! It started with about 3,500 children, but the program has now grown to serve nearly 8,000 children each summer. PAMM in the Neighborhood has won a national award for innovative programming in 2007, and is in the National Association of Counties data base as a model program.
What is the theme for PAMM in the Neighborhood this summer?
The theme this summer is In Your Element, which focuses on learning and using basic terms for the elements of art while creating projects and exploring museum exhibitions.
What art-making activities does PAMM in the Neighborhood have cooking up this summer?
Projects this summer will include elemental experiments with pipe cleaners and big, colorful, collaborative “puzzle” creations. Campers will learn about the institution and the building with our teaching artists. They’ll investigate the theme with poster images, basic inquiry, art activities, discussion, and vocabulary.
What is the importance of PAMM in the Neighborhood?
Campers will become familiar with select art images and art terms, gain understanding of art-making processes individually and collaboratively, be better prepared to participate in cultural venue visits—and grow up with shared creative community experiences.
How can the community get PAMM in the Neighborhood to come to their youth camps and community centers?
PAMM in the Neighborhood is free of charge and all materials are provided. For more information, please contact education@pamm.org. You can request a site-visit and PAMM museum tour using the online calendars. But hurry, only a few spots remain in August.
Watch how PAMM’s teaching artists prepare art-making projects for PAMM in the Neighborhood, the museum’s free program that provides art experiences and education beyond PAMM’s walls to children at camps and community centers throughout Miami-Dade County.