The Camp.
- Mar 24, 2023
- 9 min read
Updated: Jun 23, 2025
An All Ages Creative Playground for Quantum Growth and Transformation.
The Camp. is an inspirational, immersive, educational and safe playground where humans of all neurodiversity can curate their own experiential journey through storytelling, creative expression, and healing practices.
How did you first discover the concept of The Camp.?
The Camp. as it’s known today, saved my life!
It was the summer of 2018 and I had hit an all time low, financially, emotionally and energetically bankrupt with no self worth, no boundaries and a desire to be loved at any cost to myself. [Read more of The Story. Here]
On my knees, and riddled in shame, my first instinct for how to “get better” was to be of service to others. I typed into Google: kids, camp, July, August, volunteer. In a matter of seconds I came across a kids' camp in Haiti. In true Toni form, I threw myself fully into this direction without thinking much of it, shelling out a bunch of money and committing myself to three weeks of intensive volunteer work. 24 hours out from my departure, the camp was canceled due to civil unrest. I was left sitting on my floor with two suitcases full of colored pencils, coloring books, bug spray, sunscreen and a body full of typhoid drugs. I was completely lost, confused and absolutely running on empty.
A voice told me to get up, get three big pieces of paper and tape them to my lounge room wall. Then my hand, with some sort of guidance, drew up a calendar for the next three months - broken into morning, noon and night. The concept of a camp was something I had never experienced as a kid and even though I didn’t really know what I was doing I was intrigued by the voices' ideas and kept listening. Standing there, that first day, in front of the calendar, I set an intention to create an adult’s camp for myself.
Following spirit, the Universe and/or a feeling I can't truly describe (it was more of a knowing) I filled my days with all the creative things I had always wanted to do. All I could hear was… feed your mind, body and soul… and sleep. It’s time to be of service to yourself. That is how you are going to “get better”. I put my hair in braids, got my bike out of the basement and started my adventure.
Looking back, I was following breadcrumbs at every moment. Today I see it as a clear path of recovery, to heal and reconnect with myself through joy and creativity. To fill my own cup.
What was next for The Camp.?
In the summer of 2020 I was having a negotiation with the Universe over what to do with my time off. Was I to travel, sit around and chill (which was my vote at the time) or do something meaningful? I took the question to my meditation practice and again, the voice appeared. It was very clear and very loud. I had no choice. I was told to re-create The Camp. I had used to heal myself two years prior, for others to experience. So that is what I did.
Within a few weeks, I pulled together a small but mighty team of producers to create a brand and customize a new website. Together we curated three full-days of programming by engaging our collective network of artists, healers and teachers - known as The Sisters.
The online experience was exclusively for womxn, free to attend, and offered over 30 workshop type experiences and discussions on everything from storytelling; to singing; to painting; to energy healing, meditation and movement; to vegan cooking and personal branding. Over 150 womxn of all ages, backgrounds, educational and professional backgrounds, cultures, and across three continents attended The Camp.
Read more about The Camp. Summer 2020 here.
After the experience of programming, planning, producing and participating in the three week experience over the summer of 2020, I had witnessed how powerful creating a “choose your own adventure” type healing, discovery and transformation environment was for adults. The voice in my head spoke up again and said… Now it’s time to help create a space for kids to play, create and explore.
What is the vision behind The Camp. concept?
The Camp. is an inspirational, immersive, educational and safe playground where humans of all ages and neurodiversity can curate their own experiential journey through storytelling, creative expression, and healing practices.
The aim of the space – be it virtual or in person – is to share ideas, practices and tools for how we can use and teach creativity for personal transformation.
The self directed, module-based learning experiences and unique healing modalities offer a variety of opportunities for all who are seeking to express, create, and connect.
The goal of each experience is to provide a sanctuary where humans can deepen their intuitive knowledge as well as explore, experiment, expand, grow, learn, reclaim, and attune to their deep sense of self.
Whether through customized sessions for adults and children, community based experiences, corporate retreats, workshops or as part of brand-sponsored festivals, The Camp. nurtures and sustains pathways to growth – creatively, emotionally, intellectually, physically and spiritually.
What experiences does The Camp. offer now?
Spirit Sister Stories: Summer Camp 2025 is a unique urban retreat designed to connect and empower womxn's inner child.
This summer, nurture yourself within a vibrant community, through inspiring gatherings, intimate interviews, captivating performances, and enriching workshops that illuminate the profound journeys of womxn, fostering joy, transformation and sisterhood.
Since 2021, in my own New York community, The Camp. is a featured experience in Stuyvesant Town’s Oval Kids family programming. Weekly after school classes support a range of ages and neuro-abilities. Drop in services are also available for the local nanny community to support the younger ones. Both are safe & joyful environments for kids to nurture their own mental and emotional development through exploring the combination of Art & Play.
Mama or Papa and Me offer therapeutic or healing opportunities for families simply through witnessing each other naturally express and create. These observations foster a greater understanding into how different yet similar we all are and strengthen the familial bonds. By reflecting back how one feels in the form of nonverbal expression, these intimate and customized sessions provide an environment for all parties, regardless of age, to find a deeper connection and sense of belonging within the family unit. Art & Play has the profound ability to shift energy and open communication channels between parents, children and siblings. I have a deep personal connection to children with neuro diverse backgrounds and enjoy supporting families through Private Art Experiences customized to their needs - be it the location, environment, activities and communication styles.
Art & Play Parties are fun ways for parents to try something different for birthday celebrations. Fitting into existing themes or creating something from scratch I prepare an almost show-like experience immersing the birthday child and their friends into a new world full of adventure, creativity and possibility. There might be portrait painting stations, create your own dress up show, make your own book cover or album cover. Always with takeaways for the guests and a breather for the parents, these parties are a hit and no two parties are ever the same.
For me, the most exciting part of The Camp. is its flexibility to move around to different communities andto share laughs, highlight local artists and offer enjoyment and healing through Art & Play. Since I created the curriculum in a modular way, and I travel often for other projects, I had a vision that I could take The Camp. with me on the road. Creating a pop up version for the local community allows me to bring Art & Play to more children, experience other cultures and fold all of that magic and learning into future experiences.
Why does working with other artists make The Camp. unique?
In any environment that fosters self discovery through exploration we can learn about ourselves. Add in exposure to a myriad of artistic practices and the expression of those learnings can nurture deeper understanding of one's identity, create a sense of belonging and deepen trust in ourselves.
Over the Summer of 2022, in partnership with Beam Living, I curated a range of public events where I introduced the concept of collaborating with local artists to create Art & Play programming specific to their form of art.
Witnessing artists in their creative process is an incredible way to expose adults and children alike to new ways of expressing and creating. These observations can motivate us to further develop our own ideas or even try something new. More importantly, this inspiration spills into other areas of our life, fostering further self discovery, exploration and experimentation. All powerful life tools and part of The Camp.’s mission to equip humans with their own self directed personal growth toolkit.
Local cardboard artist Tom Manco, led a workshop for little makers to create miniature models of buildings from their immediate community and neighborhood. Using only recycled cardboard, tape, white paint and imagination, attendees were able to see how there were so many possibilities for them to create something from nothing. The session offered powerful messages about the interactivity of sustainability and creativity, reflected back their sense of community in the style of houses they created, and exposed them to an artistic practice that isn’t the norm.
Also unique are toy artists Sonny & Sara. Their mottos are ‘clean your room’, ‘donate old toys’ and ‘play and build’. At their workshop, junior artists could embrace practical sustainability through creating "toy sculptures”, which also actively engaged their “outside-the-box” thinking, while combining up-cycled misfit toys into their own unique creations. Offering experiences that are not the typical style of art equip children with innovative ideas for their own expression, as well as imprint ideas and possibilities into their minds.
Where do you see The Camp. in the future?
I believe we can heal the world with the arts. When I think about where in the world we could use healing initiatives I often come back to our most vulnerable populations. Racial and or minority communities, children, elderly, socioeconomically disadvantaged, underinsured or those with certain medical conditions.
Partnering with the community centers that focus on children (like the Boys & Girls Club or similar) would definitely connect Art & Play with those that would benefit greatly from this approach to healing and personal development. The modular curriculum is easy to introduce into environments where a safe space has already been created, allowing them to experiment and create. Often The Camp. programming can be effortlessly integrated into existing current art practices. Most importantly there are so many artists that could be activated from within the community to host experiences - bringing work opportunities and healing to life.
Beyond this, I would love to bring The Camp. to prisons and detention centers. Utilizing artists to create environments and opportunities for people/humans that are in the system who may and have potentially lost connection with themselves. They may be looking to make personal behavioral changes, amends, reconnect with family or simply have more joy in their day. Often these environments don’t typically allow for individuality, expression or offer support for folks looking to investigate their own psyches in order to do personal work or make those types of internal changes. Art & Play offers profound ways to express how they feel (especially in non-verbal formats), release emotions, find new ways to communicate and also offer opportunities for offender/victim reconciliation.
Mental health organizations that have chapters/groups with existing programming are also opportunities for The Camp. to bring healing to those vulnerable communities. As well as shelters and centers that support or house the elderly.
The benefits of Art & Play healing for the offender/victim relationship is similar to those of conflict zones and areas of racial/minority tension. Tension in these environments often results from a lack of understanding of each parties perspective (along with other factors like interpersonal prejudice and discrimination). Art, role play and creative exploration provides a vehicle of expression and non-verbal communication that can often provide opportunities for a deeper understanding in areas that can not often be “discussed” or “resolved” through words. Witnessing how and what someone creates, as well as what it says or means (according to the artist) and how it might share an alternative perspective to an experience or situation, as shown throughout history, leads to shifts in understanding, widens perspectives and opens doors to reconciliation and peace. The results of the work from The Camp. in this arena, albeit small or large, would be greatly beneficial to humanity and the planet.
And last but certainly not least, I would love to combine Art & Play with equine therapy. The energy of the horses, whether it be from a tactical exchange or more so from being a witness in order to be painted or in a role play or energetic exchange, would boost the healing properties into quantum levels. The level of presence one holds around horses is ten fold to other activities, allowing the subconscious to be far more open to the subtlety of messages that will raise their natural vibration upwards; towards love.
& GUESS WHAT... my horse event dream came true already see MEET YOURSEL video below...
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