Things to Do in Payson

An understated wedding bouquet. A stately dining room centerpiece. A single red rose. The designers at Absolute Floral Farms understand the impact that flowers can have, drawing on their decades of experience and influences ranging from traditional Western arrangements to tropical Tongan floral compositions to instruct students in the fine art of flower craft. During each class, they empower their pupils to shape their own wedding arrangements or fashion handmade prom boutonnieres, channeling the stress surrounding event planning into memorable bonding experiences with friends and family. Guests share drinks, laughs, and snapshots as they use the shop’s farm-sourced plants to learn what colors complement each other and which flowers fight to the death when dropped into the same container.

Founder Joani Castillo developed an abiding love for artistic endeavors in a dance class at the age of three. Those moments started her on a path that encompassed school musicals, dance teams, and a degree in theater education and dance before spending 14 years as a creative director at Word of Grace Church in Mesa. Today, Castillo and her team of passionate instructors help students learn an appreciation for their unique gifts and the ability to express themselves through a wide range of disciplines, hoping to instill the same inspiration Joani felt as a youth. In the school’s workshops, young students create uplifting music in piano, vocal, and drum classes, convey a wide range of emotions in theater and dance courses, and make credible threats to run away with the circus after acing high-flying trapeze and aerial lessons.

Not only do the instructors at Experience Arts School help students realize their talents and potential with training for the stage but they enrich lives with outreach services, including mentoring programs, educational partnerships with schools, and free performances for hospitals and care facilities.

Before East Side Art was officially founded in 1971, its first inhabitant was the visionary artist Benhardt Michelson, who used the location as an artist community in the 1930s. Today, art instructors and students flock to this oasis of beauty for summer and winter courses in painting, drawing, sculpture, and meditation. After pupils practice in the classroom, they can pop into the art-supply store, where wooden walls and ceilings shelter rows of shiny new supplies. East Side Art also has the ESA Gallery, where artists display Southwest-inspired paintings and prints, as well as sculptures made out of bronze, clay, and chewing gum. Outside, a lush courtyard and water garden provides an idyllic location for poetry readings and performances. While guests lounge in the shade after a hard day's painting, they can catch a glimpse of the Superstition Mountains, where the government stores its good luck.

"I'm bored!" is probably the most common phrase uttered by children out of school for the summer. Even inundated with an abundance of toys, games, and technology, kids still want more. Instead of getting them yet another magical centaur, parents can keep their offspring occupied with one of Arizona Summer Camps's weeklong diversions. The camp teams up with a variety of local businesses to present a diverse array of summer camps to engage the minds and bodies of youths. Each camp is coordinated with a local business that specializes in the activity of choice, including music lessons taught at The Scottsdale Studio of Music and karate at Paradise Valley Martial Arts. The quality of instruction is top-notch, and the student-to-teacher ratios are kept low.

Kids can expand their horizons with science-driven experimentation in fields such as robotics or computer gaming, or break a sweat and a few boards in one of several martial-arts camps. Gymnastics camps bolster coordination and strength in wee ones.

No one knows where Dr. Vantas lost his way. Once an esteemed doctor at the vanguard of electroshock therapy for the mentally insane, the physician let his psychiatric hospital become a madhouse, prompting rumors of Vantas using inhumane experiments on patients. Those who enter The Asylum risk falling prey to its deranged denizens and the quack’s extremely cold stethoscope. This is the spine-tingling, horror-film narrative that plays out to visitors as they creep through The Asylum, a haunted site modeled after an 1870s-style mental institution and half of The Crypt Haunted Attractions’ two-piece tribute to fear.

The other creepy venue, The Crypt, beckons intrepid guests to descend into a vault filled with the living dead. As they tiptoe through the chamber's darkened corridors, voyagers must stay poised as they strafe around staggering corpses groaning about their hunger for brains or the lack of legroom in their casket.

SunDust Art Gallery is truly a family-run operation—Ron Floyd, a retired university art professor and a recognized abstract artist, opened the 5,000-square-foot gallery with the help of his wife Mary Lou Floyd and son Chris Floyd. Opened in 2009, the studio's initial goal was to provide the Southwest's eclectic and often-unnoticed artists a home, and today it has grown to encompass a gallery collection that regularly features many such artists and mediums for which the region is well known, such as sculpture, jewelry, and photography. Throughout his long career as an art professor, Ron learned to teach students how to overcome artistry's intricacies, and he now operates out of SunDust's studios with accessible painting and drawing classes.