One of the better things about modern adulting is that, these days, you’re never too old to go to summer camp — whether your taste runs to continuing education, artistic exploration, or literal tent-related hijinks in your own personal remake of Meatballs. If you’re looking to express yourself creatively or just indulge in childhood nostalgia, the Northeast offers no shortage of organized fun this season.
Summer film school
Become an auteur on your own time at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, which offers a mini film school in the month of June. The course concentrates on documentary filmmaking, covering everything from shooting and editing to producing. Five courses from May 28-Jun 27; price is $740 per course. See massart.edu for information.
In NYC, the New York Film Academy has two six-week documentary courses, which begin on May 6 and July 8, along with a ton of workshops in other genres — from screenwriting to game design and virtual reality — that last from one to eight weeks. Prices vary; see nyfa.edu for more information.
Adult summer camp
Summer camp for grown-ups has taken off big time in the last few years, promising all of the fun of childhood sleepaway camp and little-or-none of the trauma. (Although if you want to run your own underwear up a flagpole, we assume they won’t stop you.) Camp No Counselors conducts one of the country’s most popular iterations on a campsite about two hours from NYC and Philly, offering sports like Capture the Flag, arts-and-crafts and (naturally) a talent show. From May 30-June 2 or Aug. 30-Sept. 2. Prices range from $500-$600; see campnocounselors.com for more information.
Studio art
Summer classes for grown-up artists abound throughout the Northeast. Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts offers a summer MFA program in studio art which accommodates all experience levels in a variety of class lengths (starts May 9; see mfa.org for information); the Art Studio NY has classes like “Fear-Free Drawing” and drawing tutorials at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (theartstudiony.com); and Philly’s Fleisher Art Memorial offers several immersive summer workshops ranging in length from one night to four weeks (fleisher.org).
Writing classes
You can finally knock out your novel or get that short-story collection out of your brain and onto the page, with Grub Street’s wide variety of writing workshops in Boston. Classes in personal essay or short-story writing spur you to create six pieces in six weekly evening sessions; intensive fiction workshops meet five days a week. Concentrations on memoir, young-adult fiction and outlining a novel are also offered. Classes start around mid-May; prices range from $350-$620. See grubstreet.org for more information.
Not to be outdone, the famed Gotham Writers Workshop is offering summer workshops in about every genre imaginable — from blogging to book publishing, mysteries to memoirs, travel to TV — online or at their NYC campus. Prices vary; see writingclasses.com for information.
