CCA Summer Atelier is a one or two week immersive day program for current high school students who have completed eighth grade by summer 2025. Weekday lunch as well as all materials and lab fees are included in tuition. The program concludes with an exhibition showcasing all the work created during the week. CCA housing is not available for this program.

Join us in Summer 2025! Registration will open in January 2025. Sign up for our mailing list and you'll be among the first to be notified when registration opens!

See June 2024 details below.

Monday, June 17 - Friday, June 28, 2024

No class on Wednesday, June 19 for Juneteenth

Time: 9:30am - 4:30pm

Location: CCA Main Campus - Hooper Building, 184 Hooper Street, San Francisco

Tuition: $2100 (includes lunch and snack)

Registration for Summer 2024 is now closed.

Daily Schedule at a glance

• 9:15-9:30 am / drop-off/arrival
• 9:30-12:30 pm /AM session
• 12:30-1:30 pm /Lunch Break
• 1:30-4:30 pm / PM session
• 4:30-4:45 pm / pick-up/departure

Registration closed.

This two-week intensive will introduce students to the basics of forms and terminology of animation and comics. These two visual storytelling modes will be taught in parallel with some shared assignments.

Comics: In the morning, students will learn how to create their own comics and how to present stories effectively through segmented image-making. They will be exposed to a plethora of diverse comic-making styles in class. Students will create a short comic to hone their unique artistic voice and style. Additional workshop prompts will allow students to walk away from the course with many of their own comics. Topics will also include character-building, comic rules, self-expression, and self-publishing. Instruction will include how to print your own comics and share them.

Animation: In the afternoon, students will learn how to create stories through animation and provide training in the many ways animators create fluid representations of motion and expression. Instruction will emphasize traditional character animation techniques such as character development, exaggeration, timing, acting, and weight. Examples of great animation will be shown frequently, and students will be asked to analyze great sequences. Students will gain an understanding of physics and gravity. The goal is to give students a proper foundation (timing, posing) and a workflow they can use when they move onto more advanced character-driven animation 2D or 3D classes.

This class will use an iPad with Procreate for both Animation and Comics. If you have an iPad with Procreate, please bring it with you. We will also have iPads for students to use during class.

Registration closed.

This two-week-long intensive program explores what constitutes a space and how we can define it using the lens of architecture and interior design. Through a range of mini projects, students learn how to bring their imagined spaces into reality, building 3D models with their hands, and then create an architectural project of their own design with newly acquired tools and skills. Mini projects involve sketching, model making with a variety of materials, storytelling, and writing.

Students also examine concepts of interior programming, planning, and three-dimensional form. Principles of light and lighting, color, materials, textiles, furniture, and room layouts are covered through hands-on exercises.

Students develop one long-term project of their choice from conception through presentation. We also exercise how to talk about our ideas and present our work to each other!

Registration closed.

Graphic artists are the visual storytellers of our time. From children’s books to magazine covers, movie storyboards, web images, posters, and pattern designs, the world sees the art of illustration, graphic design, and printmaking everywhere. Participants learn traditional crafts skills and explore contemporary processes while becoming familiar with presses, rollers, fine art papers, inks, and the basic terminology of printmedia. This studio also includes instruction in drawing, illustration, and digital techniques for students to develop personal imagery.

In the morning session, working with hand-cut and drawn stencils, you will learn to print on paper and fabric, create stickers and t-shirts, and gain the experience to continue to make prints at home.

The graphic workshop focuses on printmaking and provides the unique opportunity to create multiple images using hand cut and digital processes. A combination of drawing and painting skills is employed in the creation of a print. Through classical and experimental approaches, such as drypoint, monoprint, relief printing, and a risograph printing processes, students are encouraged to explore a variety of mark-making techniques.

You will receive an introduction to the history of printmaking as an artistic practice as well as a means to communicate social and political issues. At the end of class we will make an exchange portfolio and students will go home with prints from each of their classmates.

In the afternoon we’ll focus on sharpening our drawing chops while learning the fundamentals of illustration and design. Drawing will incorporate observations from life (including the human figure), negative and positive space, P.O.V. abstraction and perspective. As we move into illustration, we’ll learn to effectively use digital tools, design concepts and a variety of 2-D materials as we tackle real-world illustration assignments. Professional practices such as brainstorming, thumbnails/roughs and critiques will be incorporated into our dynamic classroom experience.

Registration closed.

Interested in three-dimensional art and design, but not sure where to start? This 3D hybrid class provides opportunities for creative expression through drawing, fashion, jewelry, sculpture, and textile in an immersive studio environment. The emphasis is on concept, design, and fun in generating new ideas based on the human form. Students will approach art making from observation, reference, and imagination to think like an artist.

Students will get to switch between fashion, sculpture, and jewelry studios throughout each day. In the Textiles sessions, students will get to explore topics like library research, live model drawing, textile design, fabric knitting, crocheting, or weaving, embroidery quilting and appliqué, and fashion collection illustration. In the Jewelry session, students will learn metalwork techniques like sawing, filing, texturing, and sanding, coring, and folding metal, cold connections in metal (rivets and prongs), and patination (color on metal). They'll get to design jewelry or sculpture, incorporate found objects in metal, and work with air dry clay and wire sculpture. Experience in jewelry, fashion, or sculpture is not necessary; however, a creative approach and willingness to push one’s limits are a must!

Registration closed.

This nine-day Film & Photography intensive gives students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of film and digital photography.

Students will spend half the day working on projects focusing on photography, with workshops in digital and experimental processes. Digital and film photography differ in many significant ways but what they have in common is the goal of translating what we see or imagine into fine visual works of art. Students will receive an introduction to all elements of digital photography, including scanning, application of Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop to the photographic process with the Mac operating system, the value of helper applications, color management, and fine ink jet printing.

The subjects will include digital color theory, photo-montage techniques, and zine making. Working with both digital and film photography as the foundation, we will build on top using fundamental and experimental techniques in the digital age. Through class discussions, and guided critiques, we will develop an increased ability to think and talk meaningfully about images and image-making while also learning how to exhibit one’s work. Experienced and novice photographers alike are welcomed.

In the afternoon, students will explore the practice of filmmakers, script writers, and other artists while developing their own work. The course provides an introduction to techniques and strategies for video, script and screenwriting while examining a wide variety of approaches in a critical context.

Working with film language, digital cameras, lighting, sound, script writing, and editing software, students immerse themselves in the conceptual and technical fundamentals of narrative and non-narrative filmmaking. Together we will explore potential themes and create a final short film, which students can upload online, and will be screened at the closing exhibition! This is a great way to work with like minded creatives, produce projects to add to one’s portfolio, and gives a rare opportunity of combining multiple mediums for the creation and showcasing of one’s work.

Registration closed.

This two-week immersive studio will focus on creative image-making in a variety of drawing and painting media, encouraging students to take risks on their way to artistic discovery.

Covering multiple aspects of the painter's studio, topics range from stretching canvases and preparing surfaces for painting (such as wood and paper) to using nontraditional means to apply paint.

Daily demonstrations of materials and specific application processes help build a vocabulary of techniques while allowing students to experiment and develop a personal painting style.

Explore the rich materials, concepts, and techniques of drawing, each day’s morning or afternoon session will focus on drawing from a clothed or nude model, while others investigate traditional and nontraditional approaches to various subjects, including nature, architecture, and abstraction. Students develop their ability to see and then translate visual experience into drawing using form, light, space, scale, and proportions to create strong compositions. Participants interpret their personal visions using pencil, charcoal, pastel, and other media.

CCA Youth Programs & Continuing Education: youthprograms@cca.edu.
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