Creative Center Chicago, Art Summer Camp

Starland's mission is to expose families to different creative outlets in order to discover where ones creative talents lie. Our professional and nurturing staff will help guide your child through the many artistic outlets in hopes of fitting the child to the appropriate creative medium. At Starland we take great pride in matching students with their passion.

Unlike government institutions and large corporations we take a personal approach to every child in discovering their passion and helping them refine it. What also sets us apart from our competitors are our innovative and high-tech classes. We stay up to date with the latest trends and offer your child the ability to be exposed to new technology they won't normally get until college.

We here at Starland understand that a parent's time is precious, and we save you the hassle of having to drive your children all around to different centers for classes by providing the convenience of having many disciplines under one roof. Once you visit our warm and comfortable center you will be hooked!

Learn more about the services offered by Starland:

Owner Adam More spent the majority of his working life as an options trader on the CBOE. Woke up one morning and had a revelation of creating a center for children of all ages to find and refine their creativity. "Maybe it was the bad burrito, but I decided I wanted to give something back after years of taking from the system". I bring a genuine interest in having people find their creative voice early, and it gives me great joy to hear peoples positive experiences at the center. Once you know me you will begin to sense my enthusiasm in having people have a great experience at Starland.

Ashley Nunan is thrilled to join the Starland family in this program lovingly passed down to her by the great Mary Poole. This is her12th year teaching performing arts on the North Shore where she has been director and music director for New Trier's Performing Arts Summer Workshop, director for Edgewood Middle School's musicals, resident music director at the Wilmette Park District, and director of Northlight Theater's Senior Summer Academy. She is immensely proud of founding a theater workshop and a show choir at the park district, and of developing her early childhood drama and music classes there and at Kenilworth's All Things Bright and Beautiful preschool. Ashley loves all her students; from the two year olds drama queens through her former students in acting programs around the country! She runs a thriving private voice studio specializing in healthy vocal technique for young singers and happily sings herself with the Apollo Chorus of Chicago. Ashley is a proud New Trier theater alumna and holds a BA in music from Drake University. She is so grateful for the love and support of fiancé Erik and cat Zooey.

Mary Poole has been with Starland for 2 years now, teaching pre-K through middle school and writing and directing plays. Mary's last position before coming here was in Kigali, Rwanda, where she spent a year teaching at a school for children orphaned by the genocide. Mary is very happy to be back at home and at Starland, where children have loving families at their beck and call, and food is so plentiful we have to keep the kids from throwing it away! What keeps Mary happy at Starland are the wonderful, devoted staff and the fabulous children and their parents. Nothing is more satisfying than a job in which you can positively impact the lives of so many young stars and watch them grow. And getting to act out princesses and dragons all day doesn't hurt! Mary holds degrees in musical theatre and writing from Illinois State University, and is a member of Opera Illinois, where she recently performed in La Traviata. Mary teaches private voice and acting lessons, and thanks her wonderful husband Phillip for his love and support.

Jordyn Pins is thrilled to be the Director of Dance at Starland. Previously Jordyn choreographed for Niles West High School which received the Kennedy Center Arts Award in 2007 for the best fine arts program in the country. She taught at On Your Toes and choreographed for their award winning dance company. She taught numerous dance classes at Northbrook Theatre and choreographed for the professional theatre company as well as the children's theatre. Professionally Jordyn currently dances with Core Project.

Marta Cruz has over 25 years of experience working with and teaching children. She started out as a teacher’s aide in a full day parochial school for kindergarteners. She loved working with children to such a great extent that she continued there for 6 years. Marta is bi-lingual in English and Spanish. She taught Spanish and Crafts classes at the Park District of Oak park. After that, Marta used her teaching experience and expertise to run a home-based day care for 7 years. Marta’s greatest teaching experience is through her love to her children and grandchildren! “It is the young child’s excitement for learning and their sense of wonder that keeps me drawn to early education.” ~Marta Cruz

Lisa Zarov grew up in Providence, R.I. and has a Bachelors Degree from Northwestern University and a Masters in Social Work from University of Illinois @ Chicago. She has been writing music, playing guitar and performing in bands in Chicago for over 20 years. When her kids were toddlers, she discovered that they, and their friends, were a delightfully captive audience whenever she played guitar for them. So she began playing at birthday parties for the toddler set and worked at B’Nai Torah preschool, where she incorporated singing and guitar into the days of her students as often as she could. Lisa brings her experience, as well as her combined love for children and music to Starland, where she will serve as mom-tot music teacher.

Alan Begoun aka 'Mr. B.' has always had a love of working with young children. He's coached little league baseball and basketball, volunteered at the J.C.C. kindergarten program and for the last two summers has been an assistant at the Chicago Botanic Garden day camp. He has honed his skills an entertainer/teacher of young children by being a grandfather of seven. Alan has also done community theater with The Highland Park players. He really enjoys assisting with the various drama and musical theater classes at Starland. He greatly appreciates the opportunity to work with these great kids.

Ellen Isaacson received her BA in Education from Murray State University with a minor in Dance Movement. She was a member of the Murray State Dance Company under the direction of Ivan Pulinkala. Ellen has been a student as well as a teacher for Lehman School of Dance in Northfield for many years. She is looking forward to returning to the dance studio to teach in the evenings this fall. Ellen has choreographed for Lagniappe/Potpourri variety show while attending New Trier High School in 2004. She has also recently choreographed for the Northbrook Children’s Theater, Babes on Broadway show. Ellen shares a passion for children as well as for dance, and is excited about combining the two and sharing that passion with her students at Starland!