Opportunity Guide I Summer, Enrichment & Activities Guide

If your child loves singing, dancing, acting, playing an instrument, composing music or painting and designing, she will find a plethora of outstanding fun and instructional programs where she can develop her talents and meet people who love what she does. Check out extracurricular arts activities, including performance opportunities, at your child’s school or at local community centers. Specialized private weekend classes and summer programs for students of all levels are sponsored by various art institutes, music festivals, universities and professional music and dance companies.

To perform at the highest levels, many arts, especially music and dance, require private lessons and enrichment. If your child likes to perform, look for audition opportunities at local fairs, festivals, community orchestras and theaters. Many professional theaters and ballet companies sponsor summer intensive programs from talented youth. A child who enjoys competing may be interested in participating in arts contests where her work can earn recognition and win awards. The best students compete, at national arts contests that offer scholarship prizes.



  1. Twice every summer, The ASC Theatre Camp (ASCTC) plunges 39 high-school students into three weeks of intensive, immersive, incomparable programming in the Shakespearean Shangri-La of Staunton,… Read more
  2. JMU hosts a wide variety of youth programs including day-long coding programs, dual enrollment programs, courses in physics, robotics, and may more. See the website for the full array of youth camps… Read more
  3. College for Kids is an enrichment program for children in grades 1-8. Children will work with James Madison University faculty and graduate students, as well as experts from the community and… Read more
  4. The JMU Summer Honors Institute is a unique week-long program where talented rising high school juniors and seniors get a first-hand look at life in a dynamic university and its Honors college. As a… Read more
  5. Liberty University Theatre Camps (LUTC) program, which includes elementary, KIDS Ignite, and middle school day camps, will start off the summer. These day camps provide local students with an… Read more
  6. The Young Writers Workshop of the University of Virginia is a nonprofit arts organization established in 1982 as the nation’s flagship program for young writers. Now in its fourth decade, it… Read more