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Image of a Helium Arts artist performing shadow puppetry with children attending a Helium Arts Workshop

Summer Camps 2023Amazing, Fun, Magical

It was a busy Summer 2023 for our 8-12 year olds. Our busiest yet! 

We just loved meeting a total of 92 children at our Summer Camps that took place in Castlebar, Cork, Ennis, Galway, Limerick and Mallow.  We ran a total of 12 Summer Camps across 6 locations with 5 professional artists. 

Thank you to everyone who came along and to those who continue to come back to our camps – every one of you adds to the Helium magic – growing our communities of friends and support and adding to the fun we all have along the way!

Below is a look at what happened at the camps in pictures! Enjoy!

Castlebar

  • A workshop group displaying their colourful and imaginative hats

  • Glow in the dark hats with spirals and pipe cleaners on them

  • A young boy making a green spiral to out on his hat

  • A child painting a blow fan

  • Children colouring in with bright colours

  • A young girl posing for a photo with a glow in the dark blow fan, polka dot dress and paper hat

  • A young boy playing with a teddy bear dog at a workshop

  • An image of light-up in the dark neon coloured art supplies

"Abbie had a fantastic time today at the camp and made a new friend with the same condition as her who only lives 10 minutes from us. We can now stay in touch. Thank you all! Keep up the great work. These services are an amazing opportunity. See you at the next camp"
( Alison and Abbie)

Cork

  • Two people smiling for a photo from a cardboard cutout

  • A volunteer helping a small girl

  • A picture of a fog in a cardboard chalkboard

  • One of our workshop groups enjoying themselves

  • A young girl drawing on cardboard outside with a marker

  • A side-on view of a cardboard chalkboard cutout

  • One of our artists explaining something to a small group

"The camp is great for giving confidence back to children and meeting others in similar circumstances so the child does not feel like they are the only ones which sometimes can happen"
(Parent)

Ennis

  • A young boy holding a marker and looking at a man older than him

  • Goal Improve to Include

  • A boy concentrating on something in front him at the workshop

  • A Helium Volunteer hanging colourful pictures on a structure made by Helium Arts Participants

  • An image of an artist, a medic and two young children working on an art project together during a Helium Arts Community Workshop

  • A girl holding her drawing of a rabbit

  • Helium volunteers helping children into a self-constructed fort of wrapping paper rolls, ribbons and drawings

  • A drawing of a a fox on grass with a sky backdrop with colourful swirls around it

"She enjoyed it and I knew that she was safe and happy there"
(Parent)

Galway

  • A young girl creating a colourful scene with puppets which is being filmed

  • Image of a table of Helium Arts participants, drawing, creating, laughing and having fun while listening to the artist at a Helium Arts workshop

  • Black and white image of a Helium participant smiling while creating an animation using an ipad on a stand and puppets

  • An image of sea life created in the workshop such as fish and sea plants against a blue background

  • A close-up image of a rainbow coloured mermaid with distinctive features such as her green eyes and pink eyebrows

  • A side-on monochrome view of children making shadows with puppets

  • A young girl creating a colourful scene with puppets which is being filmed

  • A monochrome photograph a children using rods with paper animals on top to make animal shaped shadows

"Thank you...My son attended for the first time and had a wonderful experience. He was very nervous going in on the first day but by the third afternoon he skipped in. I genuinely have never seen him like this before. It has been a wonderfully positive experience. I hope he will have the opportunity to attend the next one."
(Parent)

Limerick

  • Image of two young Helium participants with one arm around each other and the other arm showing off their Helium creations

  • A young boy painting a wooden bird

  • A workshop group showing the birdhouses they made

  • A girl holding up her birdhouse that she made and painted at the workshop

  • A boy studying a wooden bird he made

  • A young girl painting a wooden bird

  • A group of children in a workshop drawing on a chalkboard table with chalk

  • A girl creating a wooden box with a bird on top

"It’s an amazing programme, the artists and staff are amazing, the various different things they get to try is very different to school or other art classes and socially it teaches and encourages inclusion and diversity."
(Parent)

5th September, 2023