Young people entering grades 2–9 are invited to Camp MASS MoCA. For the first time, MASS MoCA is hosting a camp for middle schoolers in grades 6–9 during week 1 of camp! Participants explore the expansive campus and world-class art exhibitions and create original works of their own. Sign up early as space is limited to 20 campers each week!

Creative Lab in Multimedia and Performance with Shayna Strype
Week 1: August 4-8, 2025
Young people entering grades 6–9

Join us for a weeklong camp-style workshop during which students will create multimedia art and performance in a creative laboratory setting. Inspired by the art and architecture of MASS MoCA, participants will work together to utilize various materials, video, projections, light, and sound. Together, they’ll bring their ideas to life in a culminating, one-of-a-kind ‘happening’ within the galleries and share their artistic visions with family, friends, and museum-goers.

RSVP here.

WHOOP DEE DOO Presents: The Most Beautiful Mess in the World
(Installation, Worldbuilding)
Week 1: August 4-8, 2025
Young people entering grades 2–6

Have you ever built a fort at home using couch cushions and blankets? Then YOU are an installation artist! Installation artists reimagine what’s possible and create new worlds using a variety of materials to transform familiar spaces into something entirely new.

Campers will explore the explosive possibilities of hands-on installation art design through sculpting with everyday materials such as cardboard and newspaper, lighting tricks and techniques, and space activation through live performance. Taking inspiration from innovative artists on view at MASS MoCA including Laurie Anderson and James Turrell, campers will use installation art methods learned over the course of a week to transform a mystery space at the museum, so the space itself becomes the artwork! Join WHOOP DEE DOO for an amazing week of collaborative art making and performance-filled fun, with guided walk-throughs of our installation for friends and family to experience.

RSVP here.

Pulse and Flow: a site-based art journey with Helen Tocci and Donna Costello
(Sound, Rhythm, Music and Movement)
Week 2, August 11–15, 2025
Young people entering grades 2–6

Immerse yourself in the sounds, rhythms and spaces of MASS MoCA! Exhibitions by Gunnar Schonbeck, Raven Chacon (Like Magic) and Stephen Vitiello are the fuel that ignites the campers’ senses during this week fusing music, movement, and visual design. Spaces come alive with student-devised movement and improvised soundscapes. By resonating sounds in found objects, enlivening rhythms in the body, making music collectively, and composing artistic scores, campers will have the rare opportunity to interact intimately with both the artwork and the space to create a multidisciplinary immersive performance on the grounds and in the buildings of MASS MoCA.

RSVP here.

The Alchemy of Connection with Helen Tocci and Donna Costello
(Storytelling, Sculpture and Social Action)
Week 3, August 18–22, 2025
Young people entering grades 2–6

Connection, curiosity, and transformation are the drivers of this camp week, all inspired by Alison’s Pebworth’s Cultural Apothecary. Storytelling is central to the question Pebworth poses “What do we carry in our own hearts?” Campers bring their own experiences to the table using dramatic play, movement, and art-making as they explore ways to connect in community with each other and connect to the greater community of MASS MoCA. An installation that is active, participatory, and brings community together will form, transform, and leave us changed for the better.

RSVP here.

About the Teaching Artists:

Shayna Strype is a New York-based artist working in animation, puppetry, and performance. Her films and live performances utilize dark humor, playfulness, and mixed media techniques to explore humanity through nonhuman perspectives, including objects, animals, and elements of nature. Her films have screened at festivals internationally including Ann Arbor and Palm Springs ShortFest and received awards at Brooklyn Film Festival, Thomas Edison Film Festival, and Athens International Film Video Festival, among others. Her show, MINE, received a Jim Henson Workshop Grant and has been performed at Dixon Place Theater and the New York State Puppet Festival. Her 16mm animated film, ‘Transitional Object’, commissioned by Mono No Aware, will premiere this December in Brooklyn, New York. Shayna received her MFA in Theater from Sarah Lawrence College. @woosieparty

Sofia Dixon and Jaimie Warren of WHOOP DEE DOO facilitate this week of CAMP MASS MoCA. Founded in 2006, WHOOP DEE DOO is an artist-led organization that creates live performances and immersive installations as part of an extensive community engagement initiative. WHOOP DEE DOO partners with museums, galleries, arts organizations, festivals, schools and universities, and thoughtfully constructs its programming to be uniquely cross-generational, inclusive, and specific to the needs of our partner organizations and collaborators. Each project engages the immediate communities of the organization with which we partner, and we work closely with youth and non-profit groups to research, conceive, and create our programming. Since 2006, WHOOP DEE DOO has created over 50 large-scale commissioned projects for organizations, including SFMOMA, The Smart Museum (Chicago), Loyal (Sweden), POP Montreal, The Kemper Museum (Kansas City), The St. Louis Museum of Art, The Contemporary (Baltimore), Utah MOCA, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia), Knockdown Center (Queens, NY), and Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (San Francisco), among others.

WHOOP DEE DOO received the Abrons Arts Center Fellowship (NYC) and was an artist-in-residence at the High Line (NYC), the San Francisco Art Institute, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (Omaha, NE), Abrons Arts Center (NYC), and Artists Alliance (NYC). WHOOP DEE DOO has created educational programming with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Art21 Education Department, The Museum of Art & Design, DHC/ART (Montreal), The Contemporary (Baltimore) among many others. WHOOP DEE DOO has been featured in Art in America, Artforum, Vice, Rhizome, Artsy, and Hyperallergic, and is a featured artist project in ART21’s documentary series “New York Close Up”.

Helen Styring Tocci creates space for people of all ages to explore their unique creativity and discover the innate strength and wisdom that live in every body. With over 25 years of experience as a professional dancer, vocalist and movement teacher in New York City, her work has been presented throughout the city and beyond. Helen is a longtime teaching artist and has received multiple professional artist grants including the Dani Nikas Excellence in Teaching Award celebrating her work with New York City youth. A passionate improviser, Helen creates dynamic environments for experiencing dance and travels internationally teaching connection, awareness and musicality through CircusYoga, Contact Improvisation, and Fusion Partner Dance. As a curriculum specialist with Juilliard K-12 Programs and Initiatives, Helen supports schools around the world in implementing innovative performing arts programs that cultivate personal artistry, curiosity, and empathy in emerging global citizens. Through her company, Artful Facilitation, she offers inspiring, vital, and practical tools for facilitation to schools, colleges, companies, and arts organizations. Helen is thrilled to be collaborating with MASS MoCA to help exhibitions come alive through aesthetic education. Donna

Donna Costello is a dance artist working in the field of dance, theater, performance and education who centers the body as a deep vessel of expression. She immerses herself in process-fueled work creating amongst trees, streets, pools, warehouses, in classrooms and theaters in NYC and abroad. Recent projects include works by choreographers jill sigman/thinkdance, Carrie Ahern, Nicole Mannarino, Kelly Bartnik, Vicky Shick, filmmaker Darryl Hell, visual artist Nick Cave, and theater artist Jennifer Sargent. Her choreographic collaborations have been presented in New York, New Orleans, Virginia, California and in Mexico. She champions the authentic voice of young people teaching all ages and abilities for leading cultural institutions In New York City and its public schools. She works globally as a dance curriculum specialist for Juilliard’s K-12 Programs & Initiatives, is a teaching artist for the Park Avenue Armory and has a 25-year history working with Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) supporting, developing and deepening its foundational educational values and programs.

Hours
9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday

Meals
MASS MoCA provides a daily healthy snack for campers (included in registration fee). Campers should bring their own lunch or purchase boxed lunches from Lickety Split for an additional fee. Information on boxed lunches is sent the week before camp.

Cancellation policy
Through June 30 – 50% refund
After June 30 – no refund

Contact
413.664.4481 or campmm@massmoca.org

Cost
$400 non-members
10% discount for MASS MoCA members
Not yet a member? Become one here.

Scholarships
One full scholarship per camp is available for students from the North Adams Public Schools and North Berkshire School Union, as well as Hoosac Valley, Morningside, Conte, and Capeless Elementary Schools. Email campmm@massmoca.org with your child’s name, age, school, camp week(s) preference, and contact information by April 30 to enter the scholarship lottery. To ensure your spot in camp regardless of receiving a scholarship, register and you will receive a refund if selected.