"Centrum is a gathering place for artists of all ages, from all cultures, and in all phases of their development."

— www.centrum.org

Grace Whitmer, an incoming eighth-grader at Yakima's Discovery Lab School, attended a residence camp for the first time this year.

The camp, located on the Olympic Peninsula, is called Centrum.

And it "changed my view of art," Whitmer says.

Now, the 13-year-old wants to go to Centrum again. And she encourages other students from the Yakima Valley to experience the arts camp as well.

"When you go, just cherish that moment because it's a beautiful place and you'll have tons of fun," she says.

Centrum has been offering youth programs for more than 35 years. Located at historic Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Wash., the nonprofit organization offers camps on visual arts, music, dance, theater, science and writing. There are classes and workshops for youth and adults, as well as intergenerational programs.

Whitmer attended the Middle School Arts Exploration Camp. Her main class was Visual Arts A. In it, she learned how to do things such as making three-dimensional faces out of paper.

Centrum camps allow students "to discover things they never knew about themselves," including untapped talents and interests, says Irene Smith, a teacher at Discovery Lab.

Centrum offers youth programs through the Young Artists Project. Youths from all over Washington state and beyond attend these programs, which run from January to the end of June. Elementary, middle and high school programs are all offered.

Martha Worthley, program manager of the Young Artists Project, says approximately 30 students from Central Washington attended Centrum programs this year. That's out of 320 students from throughout Washington state and elsewhere since the beginning of 2008.

Whitmer says kids who go to Centrum "can expect to learn things you usually don't learn at school." It can "open their minds," she says.

During Centrum camps, students are exposed to several different forms of art. At Whitmer's session, there was movement and videography, creative writing, visual art and theater.

Smith attended the final performance at the camp the first year her daughter went to Centrum. She's been telling her students about Centrum programs for about five years. Centrum gives kids the "kind of opportunity we can't give in a regular school day," she says.

Some people think it's such a great opportunity that when their kids go, they follow. Chaperones are required for every group, roughly one adult for every four to six kids. Chaperones are assigned to a class — a dance class, for example — and stay with that particular class throughout the week.

Maria Flores chaperoned when her son attended a Centrum camp in the spring of 2007.

"I wanted to see what was going on," Flores says. And, "I really enjoyed it."

She says she found it made her son, Emmanuel Flores, then a seventh-grader, "more open, or friendly."

Now a freshman at Eisenhower High School, he went to a second program at Centrum this year on a full scholarship. Nearly $100,000 in scholarships and work trade are given to people wanting to go to Centrum programs.

Both Emmanuel Flores and Whitmer went to Centrum in March with a group of 14 young people from Discovery Lab, Wilson Middle School and St. Paul Cathedral School. They were also joined by a former Discovery Lab student who had moved to Canada.

Most of the Discovery Lab Centrum trips in recent years have been organized by Sara Cate, the mother of three children, two of whom have attended Centrum programs. She has served as a chaperone twice.

She also went to a Centrum workshop when she was a teen in 1973. The workshop was led by the late Frank Herbert, author of the science-fiction novel "Dune" and a part-time Port Townsend resident.

"I had a really good memory of the workshop I had done when I was 15," says Cate, adding that she sent her children because she wanted to "round out their education and enhance their education in the arts."

Celeste Cooning, a visual artist who teaches at Centrum, also recommends Centrum programs to students.

"When you're making (art) around other people, the energy and the environment builds on itself," she says.

— For more information, visit www.centrum.org.

* Georgia Gempler, a freshman at Davis High School, has participated in Centrum camps for two straight years.