Description

Love learning new skills, designing magical spaces, and bringing a world of creativity to youth? Ready to take on a leadership role with kids and adults in a personal and professionally growth centered community?

About the Arts Director:

As the Arts Director at Camp Augusta, you’d be responsible for managing the successful running of over 30 different art activities at our camp, helping staff develop their facilitation skills, and managing the systems, budgeting, and inventory for everything that goes into this domain. 

While Camp Augusta has the ‘regular’ range of campy activities, such as tie-dye, felting, ceramics, and puppet-making, we also have many intensive arts, including blacksmithing, lampworking, lathe woodworking, and jewelry smithing. This Arts Director role will end up knowing at least a little about each program area, and will work together with trained area leads – they don’t necessarily need to know how to do each craft specifically.

Want to know more about this role? See our in-depth webpage all about this position.

The Arts Director position offers a summer salary between $7,000 and $9,000 depending on experience and responsibilities. Additional opportunities for pre-and post-season work also exist. All work includes freshly-prepared organic food, housing, and many more Perks and Benefits.

Arts Director Skills:

• Lives and breathes creativity and the idea of creating fun and beautiful things for their own sake
• Innovative; sees further potential in existing activities - new methods and applications - and is able to take new visions and implement them thoroughly so they are regularly engaged in by campers
• Recognizes community needs and desires for various craft supplies and bring curiosity and creativity to meeting the wide variety of requests in this realm
• Flexible and able to focus on the big picture; does not get bogged down by clutter, choosing instead to celebrate the often messy process of creation at a summer camp
• Love for working with and teaching children in a safe, fun, and intentional manner
• Willingness to engage with the larger the camp community to offer fun, memorable experiences even beyond the realm of the arts program

Arts Director Tasks:

• Maintain optimal art clinic operations through ordering supplies at the beginning of the summer and then as needed
• Manages staff training for all arts clinics; training is purposeful and prepares staff well for teaching clinics, inviting collaboration and feedback into how each clinic is taught. Organizes on-going trainings throughout the summer with the Puppet Master
• Organize all materials needed for each clinic that runs, including instructions, in an easy-to-access way
• Takes new ideas from self and others to bring to life a world of art at Augusta. Program development and thoughtful execution
• Manages how other camp community members interact with the craft shack. Supplies used for activities beyond clinics are maintained and considered in the budget. Cleanliness and organization is maintained through solid and well-communicated processes

Dates & Benefits:

Benefits of working at Camp Augusta: 

• 300+ Hours of Experiential Training: Pre-arrival preparation and 3.5 weeks of on-site training, including:
• 75+ hours of experiential learning in psychology, sociology and education-based philosophies and approaches
• 45+ hours learning activities within our 150+ clinic offerings
• 180+ hours of learning camp by doing camp
• 9 Weeks of Summer Practicing: Being responsible for cabins of 5 campers at a time, and applying all the skills above to camp activities and discussions.
  A Skilled & Dedicated Scaffolder: With no more than a 1:8 ratio, this person emphasizes your growth and works with you to develop your skills working with kids
• Paid & Inclusive: This position offers a summer salary between $6000 and $11000, dependent on experience. Additional opportunities for pre-and post-season work also exist. All work includes freshly-prepared organic food, housing, and many more Perks and Benefits.

Why Augusta? The Camp Augusta Difference
There are over 12,000 camps in the United States and a dozen camps in Northern California that are “like” Camp Augusta. We are different in many specific ways - below are some of them - and we believe these unique Augusta differences contribute to why we were the only camp in California we could find that was full from 2009 through 2024 despite little advertising.  Here are a few of the many ways in which a position at Augusta will be a different professional experience than any you've had before:

Selective Application: We are committed to hiring top tier staff, which is why our in-depth application process seeks to understand every applicant on a deep level and - accepting only about 20% of applicants overall, and our in-depth application process seeks to understand every applicant on a deep level.

Perks and Benefits: Freshly prepared, mostly organic meals every day. Housing, multiple certifications (CPR, First Aid, Lifeguarding) that we cover for our staff and more. Basically, you can save everything you earn during the summer.

150+ types of unique Activities: Unlike most camps where you teach the same things day in and day out, our staff gets to choose which new skills they want to learn, and get 30+ hours of training for 10-15 of their favorite. As Arts Director you could be responsible for improving some of our 30+ arts clinics, and develop new ones to your heart's content!

300+ Hours of Experiential Training: Pre-arrival preparation and 3.5 weeks of on-site training - longer than any other camp we know of. So you’re ready, connected, and skilled by the time campers arrive.

To learn more about the uniqueness of being a Counselor at Camp Augusta, view our Arts Director Page. 

Feeling ready to apply?

1. Take 5 minutes to fill out our interest form. 

2. Someone from our hiring team will reach out to you within 24 hours.

3. Schedule an Intro Chat with us, and complete a full application!

You can also read more about us and our open positions on our website. We can’t wait to meet you!

Requirements

Minimum requirements

• Must be at least 19 years of age by June 1st, 2025
• Must be available during our summer dates: from May 13th to August 9th 2025
• Ability to commit to 3-5 hours of pre-camp onboarding work a week from when you are hired to when you arrive, and maintain open and prompt communication about that work
• Must be willing and able to either show proof of a positive COVID test or COVID booster since Sept 1, 2024

Preferred Qualifications:

• A history of 'meaningful' work and a variety of experiences with youth
• A plethora of interesting hobbies, passions, and life experiences that you're excited to share with us.
• Ability to return for a second summer
• A true excitement for the Arts

Living and Working at Camp Augusta Also Requires:

• Flexibility (responding to quickly changing schedules and needs)
• Stamina (on the job 24/7, working in a physically demanding environment that requires the utmost care and attention)
• Communication skills to people of all ages and backgrounds (fellow staff, children, and parents, including those from other countries)
• Patience and compassion (working with children and staff)
• Conflict resolution (other staff as well as children)
• Ability to work in stressful situations (very tight schedule, high expectations, rapidly changing environment)
• Ability to react quickly and stay calm in high stress environments (accidents/injuries, high-stress cabin group)
• Ability to work with and relate to people of various ages (child-adult)

Program and curriculum creation/development/evolution/assessment/improvement (new clinic creations, evening program creations, etc.)

...and we prefer folks who...

• Value and actively cultivate emotional intelligence, in self and others
• Love community, and possess the flexibility, open-mindedness, honesty, responsibility, and heartfelt goodwill to live and work in a 65 person community
• Actively build community and camaraderie defined by love, mutual respect, dedication to growth, and playful interactions
• Love to create, problem solve, and have fun… people who cherish their childlike spark
• Are motivated and organized enough to make those ideas happen
• Are flexible enough to thrive in the unforeseen, and enjoy the novelty and variability of each new day at camp
• Possess and cherish a growth mindset (rather than a fixed mindset)

INTERESTED? APPLY NOW

Either email applications@campaugusta.org with a resume and how/when to best connect with you, or take 5 minutes to fill out our Staff Interest Form so a member of our Hiring Team can reach out to you.