Culture
Circle Round the Square To Explore ‘the Spirit World’ in July 28 Performance
By: Emily Votaw
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It’s a muggy morning in late July and Barbara Campagnola, the executive director of Nelsonville’s Paper Circle, is giving WOUB a tour of the non-profit arts organization’s annual Circle Round the Square art camp.
Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel” plays from an iPhone, echoing through the artfully cluttered Majestic Gallery. There is a feeling of kinetic creativity, of a project coming to a close – somehow, some way. It’s the day before the culminating performance for this year’s Circle Round the Square, and it seems like things are coming together.
The yearly camp exposes children in the Nelsonville region to the arts, which historically have never been provided in grades K-8 by the Nelsonville-York City School District.
This year the camp is focusing on one central theme: ‘the spirit world.’ The camper’s diverse labors will be on display Friday, July 28, starting at 6:30 p.m. with a dance and musical performance at Stuart’s Opera House and a showcase of several music videos crafted by the kids.
Through photography, dance, mural-crafting, installation making, and music writing, the 60-70 children enrolled at the camp have explored various offshoots of the camp’s general theme: crafting “spirit animal” creatures; concocting past selves with the costumes available from the Athenian Berean Players; and even making little gravestones featuring photos of the aforementioned past selves.
In the Majestic Gallery, teenagers and kids alike are working on an enormous tree, which will be adorned with hundreds of handmade leaves once it is completed. A cemetery is slowly coming together in the adjoining room; and beyond that brightly colored fish are dangling in a sea-scape complete with a smiling seal.
Ashly Woodrum has been taking part in Circle Round the Square since she was in the fifth grade. She is now a graduate of both Nelsonville High School and the Tri-County Career Center and one of the program’s interns. She sat down with Campagnola to talk to WOUB about Circle Round the Square.
“This camp is important because we literally have nothing in Nelsonville; I remember being a kid and there was no art, nothing to do,” Woodrum said. “A camp like this really puts the spotlight on the kids, and that’s something that not a lot of them are used to.”
As an intern, Woodrum has gone through significant leadership training, a portion of the program Campagnola said is steadily growing.
While at the camp, students receive a full breakfast and lunch. Well over half of the students enrolled in the camp struggle with some type of food insecurity, making the nutrition portion of the program significant.
The camp, which started in 2005, wasn’t always able to provide this.
“We used to have to eat cheese sandwiches over in this horrible little park, with the bees and the scratchy grass,” said Campagnola. “Now, we have proper bacon and eggs and turkey and gravy.”
In addition to the arts programming that students experience during the morning at the entirely free camp, they are also taken to Hocking College in the afternoon for physical activities like swimming, flag football, rock climbing, and more.
“There are also computers there, but the kids can’t use them until they’ve done some sort of exercise for 30 minutes,” said Campagnola, who said the campers are also taken on a variety of field trips throughout the duration of Circle Round the Square.
“We’ve taken them roller skating – and it was kind of hot, but the kids loved it,” said Campagnola. “We took them to Hocking Hills laser tag – Ashley, did the kids like that?”
“The boys did,” said Woodrum.
“The boys loved it. That’s great. And they went to see Hairspray at OVST (Ohio Valley Summer Theater),” said Campagnola.
“It was great, the kids got autographs and took selfies with the actors,” said Woodrum.
“It’s very important that the kids get to work with professional artists like this,” said Campagnola. “In the process, the professional artists really become mentors for the kids.”
The list of aforementioned professional artists is long. Jaime Whitlock provided for the green screen and camera work on the music videos; acting was instructed by Ann Judy; props and costumes were guided by Patty Marcus; dance and movement were taught by Meghan Yankee; songwriting was led by Jesse Henry; and sound design and mix were crafted by Gaelan Mullins.
“At this camp, these kids make friends; lifelong friends,” said Campagnola. “When they go home in the afternoon, their bellies are full and they’re tired and they’re excited to come back the next day.”