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Founded in 1913 by Charlotte Perry and Portia Mansfield…
Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp nestles into 74 acres within the mountains of Steamboat Springs and is the oldest continuously operating performing arts summer camp in the United States. Perry-Mansfield offers nationally renowned summer performing arts training in theatre and dance for students ages 5 and up. The camp also offers professional and student performances to local residents and visitors in the summer. Throughout its history, the camp has been a pioneering influence in the development of modern dance, choreography, and performing arts education.
The Vision of Charlotte Perry and Portia Mansfield that we still embrace today is to encourage experimentation and risk-taking. Our goal is to nurture a love of the arts in a breathtaking setting that brings students closer to nature and their artistic and personal dreams than they have ever been before. We want to help bring students to their full potential by continually adding artistic strength, vision, and diversity to every program. We do this by:
Providing an artistic experience for students from all over the world;
Encouraging collaborative study between artistic disciplines;
Attracting a stimulating and world-class faculty;
Preserving the historic, artistic, and environmental integrity of the nation’s oldest continuously operating performing arts camp.
Perry-Mansfield’s Mission is to provide young people superior arts training in body, heart, and mind and to promote creativity, a sense of the close association of the arts, and the values of a way of life close to nature.
Over a hundred years ago, two ladies came to the frontier mountain town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado with a mule named “Tango.” Although the town was populated with people primarily engaged in mining and ranching, it was Charlotte Perry and Portia Mansfield’s vision to explore and teach “natural dance forms” and “artistic expression close to creatures and mountains and out-of-doors.”
Quickly regarded by the locals as the “mad ladies of Steamboat,” Charlotte and Portia founded Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp in this spectacular mountain setting – a 76-acre campus 7,000 feet above sea level and 150 miles northwest of Denver.
From their humble beginnings in a few rustic cabins and some lean years when the “scenery was the salary,” Charlotte and Portia nurtured Perry-Mansfield into one of the premier performing arts schools and camps for children and youth of all ages. Their bold vision for the camp, “Creative practice through art and nature manifests in an insightful, compassionate and courageous life” still guides us today.
Today, Perry-Mansfield is the oldest continuously operating performing arts school and camp in the country. It attracts 250 students (ages 7 through adult professional students) nationwide and showcases over ten performances each summer. With the nation’s best faculty, staff, and students, Perry-Mansfield is where innovation and imagination are expressed in theatre, musical theatre, and dance.
Organization name
Friends of Perry-Mansfield, Inc.
other names
Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp
1913
Tax id (EIN)
84-1158773
Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities
Organization Size
Large Organization
Address
40755 Routt County Road 36Routt County, CO, US
US
CA
CO, US