When you drop off your kids for Guilford Art Center's SummerArt program, you are leaving them in the capable hands of not only talented teachers and assistants but of the Center's Youth Program Coordinator, ANN PERSON. This is the fourth year that Person has run the SummerArt program, and she has been instrumental in its growing popularity and reputation as one of the shoreline's premier summer enrichment programs.

Affectionately known among the students as "the Principal" or "Dr. Coconut" (for her ability to repair stuffed toys), Person has made a career of working with children as a museum educator. Her background includes positions at the Danforth Museum of Art in Massachusetts, the Connecticut River Museum, the Yale Art Gallery and the Yale Peabody Museum. In addition to SummerArt, Ann is responsible for developing and implementing other extra curricular youth activities with the scouts and after-school programs in shoreline-area school districts, and planning school vacation workshops, birthday parties and parent/child workshops. She has expanded her duties to encompass community programming including outreach to adults and seniors.

Designed for students aged 4-12, SummerArt features weekly themed morning classes and a wide variety of media-specific or themed classes in the afternoon. Over 500 students participate over the course of the eight-week program. Person always points out that the atmosphere is low-stress, and that the process of making art is as important as any finished project. "SummerArt is a relaxed enrichment program where the process of making art is emphasized," Person states. "Children are encouraged to explore their own creativity, at the same time that they have the chance to learn about, and expand and enhance their appreciation for, other cultures, countries, interesting artists and art."

Person spends a good deal of time, beginning the previous Fall, devising innovative themes for the next summer's offerings, hiring teachers, and searching out visiting artists for special presentations. Once June arrives, the teachers and assistants are busy with the kids, but Ann is industrious behind the scenes, keeping in contact with all the teachers, trouble-shooting if necessary, marshaling visiting speakers, and soothing the occasional bout of separation anxiety or skinned knee.

Person sees every day how much enjoyment the kids are getting from the program. "The best part about SummerArt for me is walking through the school to observe the children, and taking occasional photographs of them and their art works," Ann says. "Each one has a story they immediately share with me, and they are all so proud of their 'masterpiece."