Ballibay Camps, Inc.

Ballibay is a safe, inclusive, and diverse haven for young artists and different-thinking kids. My parents, Dottie and Jerry, founded Ballibay in 1964, and I've been a director of the camp for over 20 years. 

Dottie and Jerry were not only interested in creating a great summer camp; they were reformers with a vision for an alternative arts-based educational model that emphasizes a deep respect for the creativity of children, and values childhood not as a preparation for adulthood, but as a real and beautiful way of being that has value in and of itself.

Rather than writing a book or publishing papers on their educational vision, they founded Ballibay both as a summer camp and as a lab for these ideas about what teaching and learning can be. They created a generous space in which kids make real choices about how to spend their time and energy with the support of a warm, caring, and talented group of adults, including many adult professional artists who are camp parents themselves.

Their experiment has been a great success, and after over 50 years of exploring and refining a set of core principles around non-competition, individual choice, non-mediated, conversation-based learning, and a genuine respect for kids, Ballibay is well established as a singular haven for the unique child. Ballibay campers are all “different thinkers” in one way or another. Many of them simply by virtue of being young artists, unusually self-motived kids, or ardent explorers in one or several creative areas; but also many are exceptional in other ways, and perhaps struggle with some or many of the conventional expectations of school and social existence. 

Ballibay is a uniquely welcoming and accepting community embracing many different ways-of-being. Over 80% of campers and over 50% of staff are with us for more than one summer, and think of Ballibay as their summer home.