While many children look forward to painting Easter eggs during their Spring break, 15 deserving and talented students are going to enjoy the benefits of extra art education as participants in the Masterworks Foundation's annual Easter camp.

With the "environment'' as this year's theme, the young art buffs will enjoy various activities and projects using recycled and natural materials in various media.

They will also experience watercolour work and pencil drawing using the Masterworks collection as examples of style and technique.

"The whole emphasis will be on using art as a tool to learn respect for the environment, and to realise that it needs to be preserved to be an inspiration for us,'' explains Masterworks' art education officer, Julia Pitt.

The camp will also include a trash pick-up at Astwood Cove, where Government Ministers Alex Scott and Nelson Bascombe are expected to speak with the youngsters about the environment.

Normally, Masterworks' school holidays programmes operate on a system whereby most of the 15 students who participate pay a fee, while two or three others attend on scholarship, thanks to sponsorship.

"Scholarship students are nominated by teachers on the basis of their outstanding interest in the creative arts, artistic merit, and financial need,'' Ms Pitt says. "Then, as new classes and activities are arranged, we select names from what has become our scholarship pool.'' Under normal circumstances, Masterworks write to the parents of scholarship nominees and ask them to rank their preferences for future classes and activities, and then draw on the stored data to place two or three students as opportunities arise.

However, because the response from "almost all'' Government schools has created such a large pool of scholarship names, the Easter camp will be filled exclusively with these students.

The Easter camp will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 noon on April 1 through 3.

Other activities for children offered by the Masterworks Foundation include after-school art classes for ages five to 13 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in April, May and June, and artist encounters for ages six to 12 on Saturdays in May and June.

Registration for Masterworks' Summer camp, entitled Art on the Gogh, is now open and will continue until June 26. There will be four sessions, beginning on July 3 and ending on September 1. For further information on all activities contact art education directors Julia Pitt or Roberta Mosher at 295-2619.