L.W.A. member and personal friend Miss Sequential AKA Marissa Falco is teaching mail art and make-your-own-superhero activities for a week this summer at BEAM, a rad sleep-away camp in New Hampshire. She's asking for our help! She says:
As I'm expecting that most of the kids (ages 7-17) will not be familiar with mail art, I wanted to have a few cool examples sent to the camp's activities coordinator in advance of my arrival so the kids can see a) what is possible for this medium and b) that these weird-looking things really DO make it to their destination through the mail.
As far as activities with the kids, I'm going to start them off with postcards and letters, and then progress to the delicate mailing of pinecones and other found woodland objects. If you are willing/able to help, I'd love for you to create a piece of fun/exciting mail to send directly to the camp. I don't want to rein you in too much, so while I don't have specific requests for types of mail, I am envisioning these as examples to show things like postcards larger than normal postcards, using vintage stamps as postage, mailing something in a strange shape, mailing something very heavily decorated, mailing an object, etc.
A few things to keep in mind about this mail art:
- Needs to be age-appropriate for kids as young as 7 (no swears! no nudes!)
- Needs to be something that won't melt/spoil in summer heat
- No food/candy items, per camp rules
- Mail art should be sent to:
Beam Camp
attn: Ayun Halliday/mail art domain
55 Boy Scout Road
Strafford, NH 03884
I will be arriving at the camp on Saturday, August 4th and the kids get to select their week activities the following day. It would be awesome if you could send your piece of mail art to the camp so it will arrive between July 30 and August 3rd. Ayun is the lady in charge of mail at the camp, and she knows I'm making this request, so if it's a little early it shouldn't be a problem!
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And I think that all sounds awesome. I'll bet a lot of our members could help her out. I also think someone might be getting a pigeon...
Okay, so this DOES sound awesome! And such good timing... I was just thinking last night of a set of postcards to make and one of them would be PERFECT for a Kid's Mail Call!
Thanks for spreading the word, Donovan!
Posted by: CMN | July 09, 2012 at 04:28 PM
Thanks so much for posting! And I hope that pigeon can find camp all the way from Chicago...
Posted by: Marissa | July 10, 2012 at 08:42 AM
So EXCITING! I will definitely be sending a few things... Hmmm what about over sized wooden postcards? I've been meaning to do something with them!
Posted by: Sara Jean | July 10, 2012 at 12:34 PM
That sounds like a great idea, Sara Jean! Do it!
Posted by: Donovan | July 10, 2012 at 02:15 PM
Holy shit, a summer camp with Ayun Halliday as the camp activity coordinator? Kids these days get everyfuckingthing. That's amazing. I love her. Makes me wish I was a teen again, which is the last time you'll hear that phrase from me.
Oh, and the mailing things sounds fun, too. I'll see what I can come up with for you, Marissa. :)
Posted by: Melissa of craftgasm | July 11, 2012 at 12:16 AM