CCA Summer Atelier
CCA Summer Atelier is open for registration!
To register:
Step 1: Select a specific studio and pay to register. You will receive a confirmation email from Touchnet.
Step 2: Complete the Workday Atelier application to finalize registration.
Please note if you are registering more than one student, you will need to use a separate email address to create separate applications.
See our studio descriptions below!
Scholarships are available!
Apply for need based scholarships within the Workday Atelier application. Scholarships are awarded on a rolling basis starting February 15.
Eligible CCA employees may use tuition remission for CCA Youth Programs.
- Submit your tuition remission request and indicate program your student wants to attend
- Submit Workday Atelier application
- YPCE will follow up via email regarding payment once tuition remission has been approved and application has been submitted. Once payment is submitted, the student will be registered.
Our popular summer CCA Atelier is back for 2024 and held on our newly expanding San Francisco campus. CCA Atelier will offer two-week immersive day programs for current high school students who have completed their freshman year by summer 2024. 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.
Two-Week Program at Rayko
Monday, June 17 - Friday, June 28, 2024
No class on Wednesday, June 19 for Juneteenth
Time: 9:30am - 4:30pm
Location: CCA Rayko Building, 428 3rd St, San Francisco
Tuition: $2100 (includes lunch and snack)
Registration opens January 19, 2024.
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
Photography: Black & White and Digital
This nine-day photography intensive gives students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of black-and-white film photography and digital photography.
Various themes in photography are explored as students create a series of images based on their own vision and interests. You'll shoot, develop film in the darkroom, use enlargers, and make silver gelatin prints.
Through class discussions, you develop an increased ability to think and talk meaningfully about images and image-making. Ways of exhibiting one's photographs are also discussed. Experienced and novice photographers alike are welcomed.
Students will also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of digital photography. 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 Macintosh operating system, the value of "helper" applications, color management, and fine ink jet printing. The subjects will include digital color theory, fine black and white and color printing, and photo-montage techniques.
This program will include indoor lighting studio shooting assignments for still-life and portrait photography. Outdoor photoshoots will further teach students how to use the camera to capture images in the city with an emphasis on shadow, light, texture, and composition. Either film or digital cameras of all types (including cell phone cameras) can be used in this class, and the emphasis will be on the ways in which digital processes can help you realize your photographic goals.
The program concludes with a pop-up exhibition and celebration of all student work from the photography and printmedia workshops.
*Each student must bring to class each day a working digital or film camera with full-manual-exposure control capability, memory card, and battery. Please email youthprograms@cca.edu if you have any questions.
Printmedia: Screenprinting & Printmaking
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.
During the morning session, students immerse themselves in screenprinting, one of the most versatile print mediums that we see everyday in clothing, signs, household objects and print. It has been used to make posters for revolutionary resistance movements, printed ads and to promote bands of all types. It is used in textile design and to make wall paper. 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 afternoon printmaking studio provides the unique opportunity to create multiple images using the printing press. A combination of drawing and painting skills is employed in the creation of a print. Through classical and experimental approaches, such as drypoint, monoprint, and relief printing, 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. This studio also includes instruction in drawing and illustration techniques for students to develop personnel imagery. At the end of class we will make an exchange portfolio and students will go home with prints from each of their classmates.
The program concludes with a pop-up exhibition and celebration of all student work from the photography and printmedia workshops.
Two-Week Program at Main Campus
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 opens January 16, 2024.
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
Animation 2D
This two-week intensive will introduce students to the basic forms and terminology of 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 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. If you have an iPad with Procreate, please bring it with you. We will also have iPads for students to use during class.
Architecture & Interior Design
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!
Sculpture & Drawing
In this exciting and hands-on studio intensive, students will have the opportunity to explore both 3D and 2D concepts through ceramics, sculpture, and drawing.
In the morning studio, students explore the rich materials, concepts, and techniques of drawing. A number of sessions focus on drawing from a clothed/costumed model, while others investigate both traditional and nontraditional approaches to various subjects, including drawing from observation, nature, architecture, and abstraction. Students will develop the ability to see and then translate visual experience into drawing, using pencil, charcoal, pastel, and other media.
Sculpture enables artists to break free of the flat page and express ideas in three dimensions. The emphasis is on concept, design, and fun in generating new ideas. Group activities fuel the creative process. Students will approach art making from observation, reference, and imagination to think like an artist.
Students will experiment with clay techniques and art expression through a series of introductory clay hand building projects including coil, slab, and pinch techniques. Color, line, shape, form, and texture will be investigated as students develop their personal visions with sculptural materials such as clay, wire, cardboard, and paper maché.
In the afternoon sessions students experiment with the expressive potential of clay through a variety of hand building (coil, slab, and pinching techniques). Color, line, shape, form, and texture will be investigated as students develop their personal visions with clay.
Comics & Graphic Novel
This innovative and immersive workshop introduces what it takes to write and draw comic books, manga, and graphic novels. Students learn how to create an effective narrative and how to present a story using images, then develop a short comic while working to create a distinct and personal illustrative style.
Both traditional media and digital drawing tools are used, so a wide breadth of options when developing a preferred toolset is addressed. Learn how to turn written concepts into dynamic page layouts that emphasize story, structure, character progression, dramatic tension, action, humor, and more!
Other topics include creating complex characters, developing interesting dialogue, panel construction, inking & lettering, post-production, publishing & promotion.
By studying published graphic novels of various genres and developing a basic skill set for creating comics, students find themselves well on their way to producing their own graphic novel. Participants also learn about self-publishing techniques in print and online, how to print work, and how to set up a basic website to publish digitally.
Graphic Design
This two-week-long immersive studio offers a broad introduction to the creation and behavior of communication design. Taught as a hybrid 2D studio, the decisions that designers need to make will be introduced to students who may have little or no previous exposure to graphic design process, craft, or products through hand lettering and digital design. Following a brief survey of the history of graphic design, the morning class examines contemporary design practice, including typography, color, layout, grid systems, symbol & identity, print and digital design. Participants execute several projects, including creating their own logo or poster with a design process used by many professional designers that includes sketching with tracing paper and hand lettering and coloring techniques.
In the afternoons our students will input their designs into Adobe Illustrator for further refinement and personalization. This includes adapting their logos or posters to create unique avatars, products, or a comprehensive brand. No prior Adobe Illustrator experience needed as the foundations and most popular techniques will be taught. Given the varied making practices in graphic design and illustration, this studio will alternate meetings in a classroom and computer lab.
Fashion Design & Textiles
Designing clothes is awesome, but designing and making your own textiles and then designing a fashion collection is next level. In this immersive studio, participants learn how to paint, print and/or draw their own textile design. Students experiment with knit, crochet, and/or woven fabric structures, and try their hand at embroidering, quilting, and appliqué.
Participants then use these surface design and fabric manipulation techniques to create an illustrated collection based upon a theme of their choosing, while also creating a 3D design that correlates with the collection, using designer’s tissue paper on a dress form. Sewing experience is not necessary, however, a creative approach and willingness to push one’s limits are a must!
Film & Writing
In this two-week intensive studio, students dive immediately into filmmaking.
Working in teams, every student has the opportunity to experience the many roles on set—from writing to directing to acting, cinematography, editing, art department, and more.
Students will explore the practice of screenwriters, filmmakers and other artists while developing their own assigned scripts. The course provides a solid foundation in techniques and strategies for script and screenwriting while examining a wide variety of approaches in a critical context.
Working with film language, digital cameras, lighting, sound recorders, script writing, and editing software, students immerse themselves in the conceptual and technical fundamentals of narrative and non-narrative filmmaking. The final short film, which students can upload online, will be screened at the closing exhibition.
Illustration & Drawing
Illustrators are the visual storytellers of our time. From children’s books to magazine covers, movie storyboards, web images, posters, and pattern design, the world sees the art of an illustrator everywhere.
In the illustration studio, students explore working with both dry and wet media to convey their ideas. Discussions of different illustrators and techniques will further their understanding of the different creative paths that a professional illustrator may take.
Core to the foundation of quality illustrations are fundamentals in drawing. In the drawing studio, our students work with their instructor to explore the rich materials, concepts, and techniques of drawing.
Students will develop the ability to see and then translate visual experience into drawing, using pencil, charcoal, pastel, and other media. A number of sessions focus on drawing from a clothed or nude model, while others investigate both traditional and nontraditional approaches to various subjects, including drawing from observation, nature, architecture, and abstraction.
Jewelry Making & Metal Arts
This intensive studio on contemporary metalsmithing encompasses a wide range of forms, including jewelry, functional objects, and sculpture. The class discusses how to communicate ideas within well-designed objects.
Students explore the historical and contemporary uses of metal, and get introduced to the specialized techniques—sawing, riveting, forming, metal fabrication, finishing, and more—involved in transforming wire and sheets of metal into original works of art. Participants are encouraged to incorporate found materials into their pieces.
Students will have the opportunity to experiment and create a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry or small-scale sculpture using non-precious materials such as copper and brass.
Painting & Drawing
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.
Contact Us
CCA Youth Programs & Continuing Education: youthprograms@cca.edu.
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