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Me & My Dollhouse Summer Camp: Big Fun in the World of Miniatures!
July 23rd, 2020 |
Do you remember playing with a dollhouse when you were a kid? I sure do. My cousin and I spent hours rearranging her dollhouse furniture and cooking fake food for our favorite mini-dolls; my only woe, was that I didn’t have a dollhouse of my own. Luckily, your children don’t need to have the same problem.
Historic Bethlehem Museum & Sites is offering our first-ever Me & My Dollhouse Summer Camp for kids ages 7-12! Each camper will design the entire interior of a dollhouse, including wallpaper, furniture, and accessories, AND get to bring their masterpiece home to keep at the end. Interested? Read on!
Shoutout to Barbara Schulman for decorating our beautiful sample dollhouse for us!
WHY a Dollhouse Camp?
In 2006, Elizabeth Johnston Prime, granddaughter of the first mayor of Bethlehem, Archibald Johnston, donated her antique dollhouse collection to HBMS. This collection, one of the largest dollhouse collections in the United States, spans over a century and includes 44 dollhouses and 6,000 pieces, which include dolls, tiny furniture, and other dollhouse accessories. Housed in the Collections Resource Center at the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, the dollhouses serve as a testament to Elizabeth Johnston Prime’s legacy.
Elizabeth Johnston Prime collected with the philosophy that the best dollhouses were not the most pristine, but instead, the ones that were loved and played with by children. Campers will have the opportunity to get up close to the exclusive collection and learn all about it. We are excited to share a love of art, fun, and creativity with the children of the Lehigh Valley while honoring Ms. Prime and her legacy.
WHAT will my child be making?
Each camper will receive a wooden dollhouse to make their own. This two-story dollhouse will be the base of your child’s artistic vision. Each day, we will work on a different aspect of the dollhouse— painting the interior and exterior walls, designing wallpaper, building furniture, weaving rugs, and creating characters for the home. These different activities will be accompanied by lessons about architecture, color theory, interior design, and much more!
We’ll be using common recyclable materials for furniture, textiles, decorations, characters, and more!
WHEN is the Me & My Dollhouse Summer Camp?
Monday, July 27 – Friday, July 31
Monday, August 10 – Friday, August 14
Camp runs from 8am to 12pm daily and includes play time in the Once Upon a Treehouse playroom, decorative arts lessons with the Elizabeth Johnston Prime dollhouse collection, a wooden dollhouse and craft of the day, and a snack.
For more information about registration and scholarships please visit our website. We hope to see you there!
The Me & My Dollhouse Camp is made possible through the generosity of the Elizabeth Johnston Prime Fund and Jones Children Fund.
Emma Sonnenblick is the summer 2020 programming intern at Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. She is a rising sophomore at Tufts University.
Tara O’Keefe was the spring 2020 collections management intern at Historic Bethlehem Museum & Sites. She is a graduate of The College of New Jersey with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and international studies.
