“It really is a community space and very intentionally a community space. Building community is the most critical thing to have in order to feel connected to your home and to your place,” said Cina Canada, founder of Wild Arts Learning.
Canada explains that before working with Wild Arts Learning, her career was in media production. She said her siblings and cousins began having children and that she was inspired to have “Auntie Cina’s summer camp”.
At that time, Canada was working on a documentary film on the West Coast. “Rumors of the pandemic were starting, and I thought, 'I am not going to get stuck in L.A.' So I headed home just to wait it out and see what was going to happen. During that time, I had my first kids camp for my nieces and nephews and then the next year they wanted to bring friends and then the next year they wanted it [to be bigger].”
The original intent of getting kids out into nature continued to evolve.
“I ended up staying home for the longest stint that I had been home in many years because most of my career was traveling and covering stories that weren't at home. So having all of this extended time at home was really inspiring for me. I wanted to do more kids camps,” Canada explained. “In 2023, I sort of ventured into this idea of Wild Arts. I had adults asking me for classes. So in 2024, our first full year as Wild Arts started and I was hosting kids and adults for nature-based arts and creative endeavors.”
“I'm out there learning these different skills so that I could teach them at camp, and my interests and skills kept evolving. I was taking all kinds of classes all over the place. As I was teaching, I realized I can only learn so many skills [and that] I have to bring in other teachers,” said Canada. “So I started bringing in other teachers. And now we have really high quality, skilled teachers coming from a variety of different heritage skills backgrounds [and] arts backgrounds.”
“People will walk in and you can almost just sort of feel the stress of the day leave as they walk through the front door because I've been very intentional to create that space as a relaxing, welcoming, warm space for people to be," she said.
Wild Arts Learning courses are divided into sections for children and for adults, but Canada explains that it is also okay for adults to bring a child with emailed permission.
To sign up for these programs or to learn more about this year’s programs and their availability, visit wildartslearning.com.
