Tinkering School Registration! 2026 Summer Camp at Brightworks

Tinkering School at Brightworks is an immersive, hands-on maker experience in the heart of San Francisco’s Presidio.

You are invited to come build, create and play with our amazing and creative camp staff.

Each session, we welcome a new crew of campers and the project theme is always unique, so every Tinkering camp session is one-of-a-kind.

Check out all of the details, and book your summer 2026 camp sessions!

Registration opens Friday, January 30 at 10am.

Our programs this summer include:

❋ Tinkerers (8-16 yr olds)

Our Tinkerers Camps range from 8 to 16 years, with different age groups attending each week. Tinkerers are trained to use power tools and work in groups to build projects that they dream up and design.

Past projects we’ve built include: a 25ft tall dancing marionette. A NASA-style space mission complete with launch tower, rocket, and mission control. A human-sized foosball table with suspended campers as the ball kickers. Tinkerers have lifted themselves into rafters, built cars they can actually steer, and created humongous robots that deliver flowers… this list could go on for a looooong time :-)

❋ Young Tinkerers (5.5-8 yr olds)

Young Tinkerers are our 5.5 to 8-year-old campers! They begin their week with tool training and spend the rest of the week building with wood, working on art projects, tinkering, exploring the Presidio, and playing. Check out the bridge that our Young Tinkerers built!

❋ Wild Artists (6-16 yrs old)

This offering is for artists leaving kindergarten to 16 years old, and is a mentored environment for both mentor-led and child-led art projects.

Our flexible framework supports those who need a place to do some art, and those who would like to build specific art skills. From charcoal to oil-paints, from realism to abstract - we do it all!

With a mix of guided lessons and ample time for artists' own personal exploration, we are here to help your artist thrive.

❋ LARP (8-16 yrs old)

LARP is for the 8 - 16 year old campers. Come join us for a week of Live Action Roleplaying (or LARP) at Tinkering School camp in the Presidio! We'll use an array of props – padded foam equipment made to look like swords and spears – to create a shared story of fantasy adventure. LARP plays out as a combination of sports, drama, and tabletop role-playing games in which each player acts as a character who they themselves create. (A mighty warrior? Or perhaps a powerful wizard?) Together we’ll fight battles, find treasure, learn magic spells, and weave a fantastical tale unique to our players’ imaginations.