SLIPPERY ROCK — Instruments: Saxophones, paint brushes, charcoal pencils, notepads and even the human body.

Place: Slippery Rock University for the 21st annual Summer Arts Academy for high schoolers.

Objective: inspire creativity.

"Our main goal is to introduce kids to artistic and performance concepts they might not get in their high school programs," said Joseph McCarren, academy director and SRU English professor.

Students who attended the academy from July 5 to 16 heard seminars from local artists, musicians and writers, including Pittsburgh natives Sherrie Flick, flash fiction writer, and clay artist Ed Eberle.

The 49 students who attended the two-week program this year largely came from high schools in Mercer, Lawrence and Butler counties.

The overnight program finished up at SRU Friday evening with a tour that showcased students' accomplishments in all five of the program's disciplines: visual arts, dance, theater, creative writing and jazz performance.

McCarren said when the program was founded in 1989, many high school students weren't aware they could pursue careers in the arts.

"What are you gonna be? An artist? You're gonna starve," McCarren said, expressing the views of some parents when the program began.

Parents seem to have come a long way since then and many came to SRU Friday to see what their children created during the previous weeks.

Gavynne Hehman, 16, will be a junior at Lincoln High School in Ellwood City this fall.

She created visual art in several media, including paint, pastel and charcoals.

A purple-hued collage of a dress, MP3 player and stuffed tiger doll she had from the age of 2, hung at the Art Building gallery on Friday. While creating lifelike art came natural to Hehman, the program's early schedule was tougher to master.

"The hardest part was getting up really early in the morning for me," Hehman said.

Hehman hopes to bring her artwork to living canvas as a tattoo artist.

"My dad draws and he has a lot of tattoos," Hehman said. "He supports me a lot."

Young author Krag Kerr enrolled for the creative writing program at the academy.

The soon-to-be junior at Laurel High School has already written a 500-page fiction novel he calls "Reality," which is being edited by members of the English department at SRU.

Kerr said he learned a lot about spontaneity in writing from the academy.

"I enjoyed free-verse poetry and flash fiction improved my improvisational process," Kerr said.

Flash fiction is a style of writing that starts from a set topic and is made up on the spot.

Saxophonist Danni McBryan of Grove City is stuck on a new tune since attending the camp, a concerto by Russian composer Glazunov.

"It is

the saxophone solo," McBryan said."It's like 15 minutes long if you play it right."The Winder family of Grove City loves to dance, and daughter Cecily, 17 — a second time student at the academy — is only one of four family performers.Siblings Rowan, 14, Sky, 12, and Oula, 6, also dance in various styles from tap to jazz."If I'm watching Cecily, I'm just really happy for her," said Mira Winder, Cecily's mother. "I just know she's having the best time she's ever had."Friday's showcase included a sight-specific dance, theater performance of a scene from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," big band jazz, a site-specific dance, and poetry readings, among other events.Second-year teaching assistant and former student Iris Bejgrowicz, 19, now hopes to make her career in art after she attends Alfred University in western New York."I think it's really great, it gets kids thinking about art in a different way you don't always get in public education," Bejgrowicz said of the SRU program.