Usdan Final, Free Open House for 2013 Set for 5/19

Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, the nationally renowned Long Island summer arts day camp, will hold its final, free Open House for its 46th, 2013 season on Sunday May 19 from 11 AM to 2 PM. Families may obtain information on the Center's programs and tour the 200-acre woodland campus, at 185 Colonial Springs Road in Wheatley Heights (Huntington). For directions to the Center, visit www.usdan.com.

For Open House information, contact the Center at (631) 643-7900, or (212) 772-6060, visit www.usdan.com, or write to openhouse@usdan.com. Families who cannot attend the Open House may make appointments for other days.

Usdan continues to add new programs. Most programs at Usdan Center, more than 40 in music, dance, theater, visual arts, creative writing, nature and ecology and chess, are open to all students within various age groups with no audition needed.

NEW PROGRAMS : a special three-week session July 22-August 9 (in addition to the four and seven-week programs beginning June 24); an expansion of the Center's jazz program, encompassing three separate jazz ensembles: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, giving students more personalized attention at their specific levels as well as increased opportunity for performance; a new "Technical Theatre" program for 10th to 12th grade students wishing to study theater stage management and set construction (limited enrollment); a Jazz and Tap Intensive, for 7th to 12th grades. Similar to Usdan's Ballet Intensive, this is for advanced dance students, and will include a full day of dance study; a Select Chamber Choir, a minor class, by audition for grades 7 to 12, featuring a small ensemble singing jazz, classical and popular music; and Studio Art, for grades 5 to 12, including work in two and three-dimensional media - drawing, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking and other forms.

Also, successful and recently added programs, including "Fashion Design," "Book Illustration" and "Organic Gardening and Simple Food" will continue.

Many of Usdan's programs and special events, including excerpts from its August 1, 2012 Gala Concert, may now be viewed on the Center's website, www.usdan.com. It is fully coordinated with Usdan's YouTube and Facebook sites, where additional information and late-breaking news is also featured.