Creativity Camp & Focus Group

Creativity Camp: Summer in the City

Dates: June 18-20, 2025

Venue/City: Rooster & Hen Studio, First Ascent, Chicago

Audience: Children ages 7+

This summer, we welcomed a vibrant group of Chicago kids to our Creativity Camp, hosted at our studio and across fun city excursions. Despite the sweltering heat (and unpredictable A/C), we made space for rest, play, expression—and plenty of joy and snacks!

At the studio, campers built block towers that came together to form a community, sparking thoughtful conversations about what makes a great neighborhood. We drew and wrote in our My Book of Stuff journals, while kids also shared ideas to make the stickers even cooler—duly noted by Ms. Rebecca with her trusty (and super official) clipboard!

To help beat the heat, we passed out ice cream with a local creamery—designed, of course, with flavor and signage made by the campers themselves. It was a delicious way to cool down and practice creative marketing at the same time!

We also took a trip to an art materials reuse store, where campers discovered unexpected treasures—from quirky gadgets to colorful scraps—and explored how nontraditional materials can inspire creative thinking. The visit even sparked a mini engineering challenge: gathering supplies to make homemade slingshots!

On our final day, we visited a bouldering gym—a colorful, physically engaging space where creativity took a different form. Campers noticed the vibrant route designs and coding systems, pointing out how the wall itself felt like a work of art. As they climbed, they discovered that problem-solving, like art, has many paths. Some went up, others across—but everyone found their own way.

Creativity Camp reminded us that creative expression isn’t limited to crayons or paper—it shows up in movement, conversation, invention, and exploration, in wonderfully unique ways.