Willowbrook Arts Camp receives Tualatin Community Enhancement Award | Arts & Culture

TUALATIN, Ore. -- Officials from the Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee (TAAC) has awarded Willowbrook Arts Camp, a summer day camp for children and youth, its second-ever Community Enhancement Award.

The Community Enhancement Award was created to recognize individuals or organizations whose contributions have impacted arts-related experiences for local residents. The Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee makes recommendations to the City Council when it feels this recognition is deserved. The award was presented to Willowbrook by Council President Chris Barhyte at the Council's March 14 meeting.

Willowbrook, also known as the Center for Development of Human Potential, was founded in Tualatin 30 years ago by Althea Pratt-Broome. Thanks to a partnership with the City of Tualatin since 1992, it operates at Browns Ferry Park for six weeks, this summer from June 27 to August 5.

Pratt-Broome, who retired from running a similar program at the Univesity of Southern California in 1982, was urged to create one in Tualatin using the backyard and wetlands of the historic Sweek House. She retired a second time in 2008 after seeing the program grow from 20 children to almost 2000 young persons ages 3-18 each summer. She formerly taught gifted and talented education at Portland State University.

Now directed by her daughter Rebecca Pratt and son-in-law Richard Hall, with 175 summer staff members, Willowbrook offers children creative experiences in some 34 age-appropriate interest areas ranging from arts, music, dance, theatre, photography, and film making to crafts from around the world, and nature studies using the park environment. A theatrical production free for the public is staged each Thursday and Friday night with dozens of campers participating in all elements of each show.

According to members of the Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee who created the Arts Enhancement Award program, Willowbrook gives children the chance to spark creative interests that will carry them into adulthood. Hundreds of kids point to Willowbrook as the place where they can safely test their hidden talents, and explore facets of their lives that schools are not equipped to do.

The program is divided into villages with age-appropriate activities available to all. Learning activities that require dexterity and skill, such as stained glass work, are typically restricted for older children. In music, children can try woodwinds, brass, piano, percussion, and choral. In dance, kids enjoy creative movement, folk, tap, ballet, contemporary, and ballroom styles. Many of these elements are used on stage in theatrical productions, including annual Shakespeare performances. Creative writing and videography are examples of other art forms, while Native American crafts and Japanese art forms remain student favorites. Each week also brings in guest artists from a variety of fields.

Students can enroll for a short time or all summer. Many staff members today had once been Willowbrook campers themselves. Campers who demonstrate leadership potential are often advanced into apprentice roles, and may return to Willowbrook as college-age assistants.

Two Tualatin graduates of Willowbrook believe the program was a major factor in their decision to continue on that path. Kelly Tunstall, a professional artist in San Francisco and the daughter of Tualatin residents, Gerry and Christine Tunstall, said, "Willowbrook was for me the proverbial lightbulb that helped me decide I actually want to do this as a career. I'll thank my folks forever for sending me."

Tunstall graduated from Tualatin High School in 1998 and went on to graduate from California College of the Arts. She is now an art director for several technology companies, and also shows her own work nationally and internationally.

"Willowbrook allowed me to say what do I really want to do today," Tunstall said. "Photography? Paper mache? Costume making? What is going to satisfy me artistically today? Who do I feel like being around, and how can we collaborate today? The social side of being an artist is one that I personally find so rewarding. Willowbrook's philosophy is that art is not always made alone, or just something you have to do in art class."

Tualatin native Jackson Truax served as a camper and volunteer staff member before moving to the Los Angeles area and graduating from Chapman College with a creative writing degree in 2009. 

"For me, Willowbrook was a community of caring people who all believed that not only was everyone leading a life of value, deserving of respect, but also that the community of Willowbrook was at its best when we were each giving the best of ourselves --creatively and personally -- knowing that the goodness we put into the community would come back to us ten-fold," said Truax, now a film journalist. "It's truly impossible to even begin to think about or quantify the permanent and profound impact that Willowbrook has had on my life. It isn't something that I measure, and I don't think it could be. Rather, it's something that is carried with me and treasured every day."

The City's partnership began in 1992 when the newly-purchased Browns Ferry Park land was not yet completed. At the time, Willowbrook was serving 200 children per day with a railroad track to be crossed by parents bringing and picking up campers. The program uses 4 of the 28 acres.