Young children and teenagers who didn't want learning and creativity to stop with a break from the classroom took 100 pounds of glass, 550 pipe cleaners, 5,184 paper strips and 12 yards of chicken wire, among other materials, and transformed it all into colorful, beautiful, memory-making pieces of art.

Their setting was the Coastal Arts Center of Orange Beach's (CACOB) summer art camps, where day-campers from grades 1 through high school create pieces of art across mediums and according to their age and skill level. They paint, glaze pottery, create mosaics and masks, build wind chimes with driftwood and even learn how to blow glass, learning from CACOB's resident glass blowers, a unique experience afforded safely to children of all ages.

"What I love is that we have some people plan their whole vacation around their kids coming to camp, or their grandkids. We've got grandparents making sure they're online at 9 a.m. to sign up because it really does usually fill up in two minutes," said Amoreena Brewton, art education coordinator for the arts center.

The center holds three summer camps each year, allowing for a specialization among varying age groups. Lil Kids Camp serves grades 1-3, with campers attending from 10 a.m. to noon for one week. Camp CASA is for grades 4-7.

"I got here in 2018. My daughter was in eighth grade, and we had nothing for her age. We had lots of kids' things and lots of grownup things but nothing for the in-between," Brewton said.

So, just like any artist on display in the center or working as a resident, she saw something that could be made and created it.

Since its first year in 2018, Teen Workshop has filled every rendition. Now, younger campers can return as older teenagers and bring friends as they gain relationships in middle and high school.

The – fun – challenge for Brewton is offering projects that let both novices just starting to explore art and already gifted teen artists be challenged and successful.

"You want them to feel good about their art, but you don't want it overly simplified," she said. "And we do something different every year for at least five or six years so none of the kids repeat."

Many kids are local, but many others travel daily from the Eastern Shore or are in town for the week on family vacation. Brewton noted campers this year from Oklahoma, New Orleans and New Mexico.

The center also holds Wonderful Wednesdays, and Brewton has a family who has planned their vacation to visit grandparents from San Fransisco the last three years to make the activity night.

Another program the center maintains is school programs to offer students an outlet for art and creativity during the school year.

"Whether you pursue it or are just creative in your thinking, there's not always enough time in the public school system," Brewton said. "… So few kids get to blow glass, and they're doing it here and they're 7."

Creating their own work is a big part of the summer camp curriculum, but Brewton also likes to bring in guest artists so campers can learn about different mediums from working, professional artists making a career out of it.

Jen's Bay Balloons visited this summer. Brewton aims to show you can make a living by doing art, and it doesn't have to be "high art" to be fulfilling and lucrative.

Another guest this year was Micah Green, photographer and chief digital officer for Gulf Coast Media (and this writer's husband) who also freelances for for local clients like Perdido Beach Resort, Cooper Farm and Southern Chili Lab, as well as national publications such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Reuters. He talked to the teens about composition, storytelling and documenting your own life. The teens spent the week practicing the basics of photography in terms Green taught that can be accessible whether you have a camera or iPhone.

"I feel so lucky to have the job I have, and when I was in middle school going into high school, I had no idea a job like this really existed," Green said, "so I like to share those insights. Kids now seem so visually adept that maybe helping them harness that a little bit will propel them into a visual career."

The classes are capped at around 12 campers in each age group. The camps fill up immediately when they go online each early summer, but Brewton said she thinks the number is where it needs to be.

"My mother taught me that Jesus had 12 disciples," she said. "I don't know why anyone would think a teacher should have more than that."

Registration goes live two months before the camps begin, so look out for around June 2-6, 2025, for it to open again.