Reflecting on the Summer

P1420991Last week we wrapped up another successful summer of children’s programming at Patchwork. As always, the summer was a family-like experience with multiple generations of people all participating together.  We had everyone from three-year-old Calvin participating in his fourth summer with us (yep, you read that right!) to 90-year-old Helen being introduced to the children of the children she used to teach here as a volunteer.

Thanks to our two Sculpture Weeks, we have some new sculptures in our Blackford’s Grove Forest at the corner of 6th and Blackford. Every participant had an opportunity to try welding, under the tutelage of this summer’s visiting sculptor Adam Rakestraw. The group worked together to design, fabricate, and install gates for the garden made from old bike parts and a one-of-a-kind bottle tree. In the process of installation, we used neon string to stabilize the piece as its concrete base dried. The group decided the string added to the piece, so we left it connected. Participants during Art Garden Week II created bottle tree jewelry to add to the tree as well. Stop by and check out our fun and quirky new art!

Dance Week was next up and was presented in collaboration with the Children’s Center for Dance Education. Dance WeekParticipants had a wonderful time jumping, moving, and dancing with Sadia. The week included learning Spanish dances, large and colorful streamers, and a Soul Train dance line for which everyone laughed and had fun.

Last week was Art Garden II. Susan Fowler was back to tell more stories from Indiana’s history in honor of the bicentennial (this was her 10th summer here!). We learned about Larry Bird and the history of women’s basketball and the Olympics and Abe Lincoln. In the studio, participants glazed the ceramic mushroom sculptures they’d created during Art GardeningGarden I. In the garden, they picked plums, blackberries, cucumbers, onions and zinnias. They also dug a bountiful harvest of potatoes. In the kitchen, they roasted the potatoes and onions, chopped up the plums and cucumbers, mixed up Jello and cookies, made cobblers, and scrambled fresh duck eggs.

Special thanks to the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana, the Evansville Audubon Society, the Indiana Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Vanderburgh Community Foundation for providing special funding for our summer arts activities.

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