Every summer morning, Miosotty Ortega’s hour-long drive from Roxbury to Lincoln becomes worthwhile the instant she and her three children reach deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum.
For the past four years, Miosotty’s daughter, Lyla, has been learning, growing, and creating art in nature at deCordova’s Hive summer camp. Lyla and her two younger brothers, Kaleb and Ezra, who have been Hive campers for the past three years, are among the 117 children who attended Trustees summer camps last year thanks to generous donations for financial assistance scholarships.
After attending a performance at deCordova, Miosotty fell in love with the property and soon discovered it hosted a summer camp that offered financial assistance.
Miosotty and her three children, Lyla, Ezra, and Kaleb in front Saul Melman's "Best Of All Possible Worlds" installation at deCordova Scultpure Park and Museum in Lincoln, the location of the Hive summer camp.
“As a single mom I was struggling at the time and I saw they had financial assistance, so I applied, and Lyla got the scholarship,” Miosotty said. “I was excited for her because this was such an incredible experience to expand her imagination and be creative.”
The Hive is a five-week summer camp at deCordova where campers spend their days learning about art and nature and creating art themselves–indoors in a studio and outdoors in the sculpture park.
The camp, and deCordova as a whole, is particularly interesting to Miosotty, who has a background in multiple art forms, from fashion design and sculpture to tattoo and nail art. She said that giving her children opportunities to create their own art is truly special, and that she has seen their imagination and creativity grow after starting camp.
“For me, it was thrilling seeing my child get an experience that realistically at the time I was unable to give to her. I’m blessed there are people who have kind hearts and are willing to donate for this."
– Miosotty
“For me, it was thrilling seeing my child get an experience that realistically at the time I was unable to give to her. I’m blessed there are people who have kind hearts and are willing to donate for this,” Miosotty said.
The Trustees runs summer camps at seven of its properties throughout the state. In the summer of 2024, The Trustees awarded a record number of scholarships totaling $77,000 supporting 117 campers for 177 weeks of camp. According to Trustees Director of Learning Julie Bernson, there were 280 Hive campers this past year, 18 of whom were on scholarship.
“The scholarships bring new people to deCordova. All told we have campers coming from 46 different communities to The Hive,” Julie said. “It’s great for the campers to meet and interact with people from a variety of towns and backgrounds.”
Unfortunately, the demand for scholarships to Trustees camps has outpaced the supply. The hope, according to Bernson, is that continued donations will help The Trustees meet the requests for future scholarships.
Kaleb wears a costume he designed during his time at Hive.
Ezra shows off some of his drawings at camp.
Families who receive camp scholarships also receive a Trustees family membership, which comes with many benefits, including free admission to the 120+ Trustees properties across the state year-round. Miosotty and her children have used this benefit to visit other properties near their home in Boston, including Governor Hutchinson Field in Milton where they saw “Arias Aloft: Euphoria” an opera and acrobatics performance last summer.
“They had never been to an opera before,” Miosotty said of her children. “With The Trustees I can show them different things they might not know about.”
For Miosotty, what separates The Hive from typical summer camps is not just its unique setting, but the curriculum and the attention the campers get from the staff.
“It’s great to know they’re being educated. I’ve worked as a counselor at other camps and here the exposure to other kids and art and creativity is just amazing,” she said. “At regular camps kids might not really be challenged. Here they are getting challenged to create, imagine, and work together.”
“My favorite part of camp is meeting new people and creating art with them,” Lyla said.
Lyla runs to keep the tunnel working during a group activity at Hive.
Lyla working on her miniature version of Hugh Hayden's "Huff and a Puff."
Most summer mornings, Miosotty and her children walk through the sculpture park, talk about the art they see, and enjoy the outdoors before the three campers start their day at camp.
“Sometimes coming in the morning for me creates a mental state of tranquility from being in nature, and it feels like a home away from home,” she said. “I’m still in Massachusetts, but it feels like I just traveled to another part of the world.”
