Beam Camp

Kids making spectacular things happen in the New Hampshire forest since 2005

Beam Camp is where Beam Center was born—an iterative experiment in community, collaboration, and exploration located in Strafford, NH. Beam Camp is a specialized summer sleepaway camp focused on project making. We engage campers and staff to realize the potential of each individual and the collective.

Our Archinect Award-winning program offers youth ages 9-17 the opportunity to gain confidence in hands-on skills while exploring design, problem solving, teamwork and the creative process. We work to make sure our campers feel supportive and ambitious while in their changing environment. Each session, campers and staff build projects at a variety of scales, ranging from smaller individual creations to a spectacular large-scale project imagined by designers from around the world.

Following the opening of Beam Center in 2012, Beam Camp invited youth from Beam’s NYC-based programs and partnerships to come to camp, including from our Project Fellows program, our partner schools, and local community based organizations. As of 2024 Beam Camp has hosted more than 2,500 campers, providing 500+ full and partial scholarships.

Beam Camp Welcomes Everyone!

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Beam Camp Pillars:

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The Big Project

Every session Beam campers and staff build a unique and spectacular large-scale collaborative Project that serves as the central collaborative element of the Beam Camp experience. Projects are chosen from 50+ proposals by artists, architects, and other big thinkers from all over the world in our annual international design competition.

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Domains

Domains at Beam Camp are in-depth, hands-on, discovery activities in the arts, performance, sciences, athletic or cultural fields (or mash-up of several fields). In the first and second week of the session, Beam Campers choose to explore a new Domain, exploring disciplines, techniques, or projects in small groups. Domains pursue learning, making, and experimenting with personal goals and products in mind, rather than the Beam Camp Big Project's single gigantic one.

Past Domains include:

  • Terrariums

  • Long Distance Swimming

  • Japanese Bag Design

  • Weaving in the Woods: Primitive Technology & Fresh Ideas

  • To know or not to know, expert or not

  • Robot Fight

  • Beam Cover Band: Experimental Renditions of Popular Songs

  • Xylophone

  • Art History Selfie

  • Getting Lost: an active guide to the unknown

  • Plant Allies: folklore and ancient craft

  • Robot Catwalk

  • Beating Beam Vol. 2: Sampling and Beats, Sound effect board

  • The Moth

  • Knitting

  • Rice Paper Lantern

  • Mechanical Flip Books

  • Beloved Imagination: Surrealist Video Adventures

  • Diorama Videos: 1,000 yrs future

  • Hanging Tough: Postmodern Lounging Part IV

  • Shibori

  • Large-scale Mural

  • Archery

  • Screenprinting

  • Water Windchimes

  • Candle Sculptures

  • Rockets

  • Site Specific Performance

  • 1,000 yrs Past

  • Soccer

  • Weaving

  • Pie Making

  • Baton Twirling

…to name a few!

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Independent Work

At Beam Camp, we encourage youth to discover and dive into their own unique ways of making things happen. They bring them to life in their Independent Work. 

It starts with the Guilds—the tools, spaces and methods of making that we think Beam Campers should get to know and practice. Some will come in handy on the Project and some will be of use in campers’ Independent Projects. Over the course of the session, each camper will have the opportunity to rotate through Guilds or they can choose to just stay in one and then combine all they’ve learned into their own project.

Our Guild spaces include:

  • Metal Shop: metal work, welding, casting

  • Woodshop: carpentry

  • Art Barn: textiles, knitting, sewing, ceramics

  • Fabrication Lab: 3D printing, laser cutting, circuitry, physical computing, coding, digital fabrication

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Community Work

Campers and staff collaborate every day to make the camp community a comfortable, safe, and delightful place to live and learn. Community Care focuses on:

  • Cooking (baking, meal preparation)

  • Maintenance (cleaning common areas, facility painting and repair)

  • Event Planning (after dinner activities, Sundays, special meals)

Cabins rotate through Community Care assignments to ensure everybody has a chance to contribute in the different parts of camp.

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Pulse

Each day, every camper has the opportunity to swim and take part in athletics and active play. Activities can include traditional camp activities like nature walks and Camp-made games like Gaga Ball, Circle Rules Football or Froccer.

2025 Big Project: Theater of Giants

Building on Beam Camp’s previous successes in performative production, Theater of Giants is a specialized piece of play performance infrastructure that enables the small to become giant, bodies to merge and objects to come alive.

Shadow theatre has a long history and often incorporates intricate puppetry and performed in intimate glowing settings. Utilizing Beam Camp’s dramatic landscape and extra large team, this shadow theatre aims to bring the art form to a new scale and dimension, culminating in a dramatically atmospheric light and shadow performance on the world’s largest shadow theatre stage.

The project will invite campers to work with a variety of tools and materials to create the stage deck, siding, frames screen, and two-dimensional puppets which will be used to create a theatrical shadow performance.

The disciplines campers will learn include:

  • Wood & Metal Fabrication

  • 3D Printing

  • Puppet/Prop/Costume Making

Dates, Fees & Application 

4 Week Session:

  • June 28th - July 26th

  • Ages: 11 years old (OR rising 5th graders) to 17 years old.

  • Full Cost: $6,900

2 Week Sessions: 

  1. June 28th - July 12th 

  2. July 27th - August 9th

  • Ages: 9 years of to 15 years old

  • Full Cost: $3,330

Tuition

Beam Camp uses a Tiered Tuition model. Tiered Tuition is determined by: 

  • Number of total household members

  • Annual Household Income and any contributing adults that live outside the household.

  • Household Assets

Tuition & tuition assistance

There are two ways to save on your Beam Camp tuition (these discounts can be combined).

  1. Request and submit a Tiered Tuition Form (sent upon when requested in application)

  2. Pay your tuition in full within 15 days of registration to receive a 2% discount

The tuition payment process

**Please pay by check if you can! Credit card transactions will incur a 3.5% fee.**

  • Any tuition paid in full within 15 days of admission offer receives a 2% discount regardless of Tuition Tier (until March 1, 2025) 

  • A deposit of 25% of your total camp cost is due immediately upon camper registration. 

  • Families eligible for Pay What You Can tuition, pay a $100 deposit upon registration which will be refunded on camper's first day of camp upon request, or can be contributed towards camp expenses.

  • Registrations can be canceled for any reason 3 months prior to the start of camp with a complete refund of deposit and tuition.

  • For registrations canceled on or after the 3 month deadline, the deposit will be non-refundable and any portion of tuition paid will be refunded minus any credit card fees incurred.

  • For registrations canceled on or after 2 months prior, no portion of tuition paid or deposit will be refunded.

  • Tuition will be invoiced in three equal payments due January 1st, February 15th, and April 1st.

  • All balances are due by April 1.

  • For registrations received after April 1st, 2025, tuition will be due within 15 days and are ineligible for full payment discount.

  • Young camper smiling and holding a red soda can

    —Mackenzie Ekechukwu, Summer 2023 and 2024 Camper

    I want to return to camp because I had a wonderful time. I was shocked how amazing it was to connect with new people for 2 weeks device free. I love the nature that I was exposed to and it was wonderful to reconnect.

  • Board member standing outside and looking at camera while wearing a suit

    —Mateo Marcus

    Going to Beam Camp this past summer was a meaningful experience.  It was the first time I was away from home by myself for more than a couple days. The top 3 skills I learned at Beam Camp are woodworking, swimming and being more independent.

  • —Daniel Villareal

    At Beam I spent time learning techniques for crafting and helping new people discover what they like. I want to return to make more friends and share ideas with everyone.