If you've spent any time at all on this blog or in the parks this summer, you'll know that sidewalk chalk has been one of our biggest hits. Yesterday at Herman Park was no different, and despite the heat the kids were ready to get their hands dirty! With a little guidance from artist Wendy Mahon from Center for Arts Inspired Learning, they left their mark on the park in the best way possible. Take a look below to see what they came up with! This week has been a scorcher, and what better way to cool off and clean up than with a splash in the Herman fountain? You can bet these hands didn't stay dirty for long! Art Gallery
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Blanket. Lawn chair. Popsicles (optional)... and a life-changing educational program. It's that time of year again. August 4th through the 14th, the 2015 STEP teen ensemble is live and onstage at a park near you! Come see their grand opening at our very own Herman Park, August 4th at 7:00 PM! Created and performed by the STEP 2015 ensemble, Lost in the Water is presented as part of CPT's Performing Water series in connection with the City of Cleveland's Year of Clean Water. Who dares to venture out to the haunted lighthouse? What unfortunate souls drift with the water-logged wreck? And who might find jewels of wisdom there? Inspired by the Inuit folktale The Skeleton Woman, Shakespeare's The Tempest, the Susanoo-no-Mikoto story of Japan, and the South African myth, Selekena and the River Goddess, this family-friendly voyage is a powerful collection of tales that explore our deep connection to water, one of our most precious and powerful resources. Come celebrate the creativity of Cleveland's youth! Bring a blanket or a lawn chair and enjoy free theatre in the park! For additional dates and times, check out CPT's Student Theater website. About STEP
Founded in 1995, CPT's Student Theatre Enrichment Program (STEP) celebrates its 21st year of providing rigorous arts education and job training for low income urban teens. STEP is an 8-week intensive that offers youth the opportunity to earn money while working and training in close collaboration CPT Teaching Artists, led by Education Director Chris Seibert. STEP participants meet five hours per day, five days per week to engage in acting, writing, movement, percussion, voice, dance, technical production and touring while developing valuable job skills such as timeliness, commitment and teamwork. The program culminates in the creation of an original theatrical production that tours FREE performances to indoor and outdoor venues across the city. Through STEP, the youth see themselves as positive and inspirational forces, and watch as their work impacts the larger Cleveland community. Yesterday was the last "Zumbacraft" at Michael Zone Recreation Center, and what better way to finish off the season than with gems, glitter, and plenty of glue? Artist Kristen Cliffel, from Center for Arts Inspired Learning, asked each artist to base their design on a favorite summer memory. We saw everything from beach scenes, sunsets, flower gardens, night skies, and one heart that looked just like a fancy sugar cookie! What has been your favorite part of summer? Artists started out by drawing the background with markers, and then moved onto adding embellishments. Take a look below at some of the finished masterpieces! (Don't see your picture here? Check out our photo album for all the shots from the evening!) Just because our series at Michael Zone Rec is over doesn't mean we're ready to wind down yet. We still have plenty of awesome art-in-the-park opportunities left this summer, so check the calendar and get ready for even more fun!
Next week, come on over to Herman Park for Student Theater Enrichment Program's free outdoor show; Lost in the Water. Hosted by the Cleveland Public Theater, the STEP Program is in its 21st year of bringing theater to Cleveland city parks. Check back soon for more information! Check out these awesome photos of Girls With Sole's Women's Health and Wellness Day! To see all of the pictures from the event, take a look through our photo album.
Last night’s crowd gathered at Fairview Park for the weekly ice cream social, swinging from the playground and stomping through the splash park. In addition to the excitement of free popsicles and ice cream sandwiches, we had a special treat in store for the kids (and adults!) this week. Children’s book illustrator Sequoia Bostick made her début at Fairview, bringing with her one of the most exciting crafts of the summer: miniature lighthouse night lights! With a little imagination and a ton of gemstones, the cups were transformed into blinking, twinkling miniature lighthouses. As the sun sunk lower and lower in the sky, more and more lighthouses added their glow to the park. Although most people left before it got too dark, we were able to snap a group picture with all the die-hard crafters who were more than happy to stay up past their bedtimes. If you feel like you missed out on this craft, you can make a lighthouse of your own! All you need are the following materials: 1 Red solo cup 1 Smaller clear plastic cup 1 battery powered tea light White duct tape Gemstones Dark card stock Markers Glue Imagination! Directions below: 1. Turn your red Solo cup upside down. This is the foundation of your lighthouse. Decorate the outside of your cup with strips of white tape. 2. Cut the card stock into several small squares (windows) and a small rectangle (door). Glue these to the outside of the red Solo cup to create the façade of your lighthouse. 3. Finish decorating the outside of your red cup with sharpies, glitter, and gemstones. Use your imagination, and go wild! 4. Set the tea light on top of the inverted red cup 5. Place your clear cup upside down on top of the red cup. It should come about halfway down the sides of the red cup, creating a nice cover for the tea light. You can decorate the clear cup as much as you want. 6. Cut out a circle from the cardstock that is about the diameter of the base of the clear cup. Glue this to the bottom of the cup (that is, the top of your lighthouse) to form the roof. 7. Turn out all the lights and enjoy! Make sure you join us next week at Fairview for a free live concert featuring Lee Chilcote and Jen O’Leary, AND another exciting craft! Artist and photographer Julia Van Wagenen will be with us again, and this time she is bringing sun prints!
If you’ve never had your art in a public installation, this is your chance! The sun prints will be carefully labeled and collected at the end of the night, to be scanned by the artist for use in a public art installation on Vine Court. But don’t worry, all of the prints will be returned the following week, so you will get to keep your creation. We only have two more ice cream socials left this summer, so let’s make the most of them! Yesterday at Herman Park we beat the heat with homemade fans, brought to us by Artist Wendy from Center for Arts-Inspired Learning (you might remember her from the awesome kite making workshop she led earlier this summer). It was the perfect project for a summer afternoon, and we all had a blast! The half-dome design was easy enough to cut out, but these kids got creative with how they decorated each fan. Some fans ended up with cat ears, and at least one looked exactly like Micky Mouse (we have some Disney fans here at Herman Park). Can you spot Wolverine from X-Men on one of the fans below? One hour of crafting was simply not enough! The artists were still hard at work when our craft hour came to a close, and Wendy was kind enough to leave us with a stack of paper to keep working with. You wouldn't believe the kind of origami these kids are capable of: fortune-tellers, flowers, and paper lanterns, oh my! By the time I finally had to head back to the office we had made a whole bundle of origami, and the kids were still crafting away. I was the lucky recipient of a beautiful paper rose, which has joined the growing array of wonderful art I've collected this summer.
If you missed out on the fun this week, make sure you join us next Wednesday; Wendy will be back with another fun art project, and it is going to be AWESOME. See you then! Last Thursday marked the Mt. Pleasant Community's third outdoor concert of the summer, featuring the David Crawford Project and a neighborhood health fair. Take a look through our photos of this fun event, and make sure you mark your calendars for Mt. Pleasant's last two concerts of the summer, coming up on July 30th and August 13th!
We were so excited to welcome artist Melissa from Art House back to another neighborhood park this summer. Over fifty people showed up to design their own T-shirts, while even more played in the splash park or did Zumba nearby. No two shirts turned out the same, but they were all bursting with color and creativity. Check out our photo album to see the artists at work, or look below to see how you can make your very own tie-dye creation! Try This at Home!You might notice that we don't have any buckets of dye or soda ash set up; that's because this is a special kind of tie-dye that is almost 100% mess-free! If you want to try this at home, here's what you'll need: Sharpies Rubbing alcohol Eye dropper or small paint brush White article of clothing (paper towels and coffee filters also work well) Cardboard or embroidery hoop Instructions below: 1. Place the cardboard under your material to prevent the sharpie from bleeding through. If you are making a shirt, you will want to put the cardboard INSIDE the shirt to keep the opposite side clean. In the picture above, you might notice someone using an embroidery hoop to keep her shirt taught. That works too! 2. Draw your design! You can use as many or as few colors as you like, but remember that everything will start to blend together in the next step. 3. Using an eye dropper, drip rubbing alcohol onto your design. For more accuracy, you can also apply the rubbing alcohol with a paint brush. Almost like magic, your design will spread out and the colors will mix together to create a beautiful tie-dye effect! 4. Allow shirt to air dry before setting the color by either ironing or drying it on high heat. 5. Wear and enjoy! Next Monday (July 27) will be our last day at Michael Zone Recreation Center, so make sure you come out and join us for the grand finale! If you haven't had your crafting fix for the summer yet, don't worry! We have plenty of other activities planned at different neighborhood parks. Check out our calendar to see what's going on at Fairview and Herman Parks!
Join our friends at the Thea Bowman Center for a fun-filled day of free food, crafts, and music, all while learning about community resources that are available to you and your family. July 23, 2015 3:00 pm - 5:30 pm 11901 Oakfield Ave. Cleveland, OH 44105 For more information, call (216) 491-0699
We could not have asked for a more beautiful day for last week's ice cream social at Fairview Park, and we were thrilled to have the Sam Blakeslee Quartet joining us for a wonderful evening of jazz. Accompanying Sam were musicians Russell Gelman-Sheehan on guitar, Dan Pappalardo on bass, and Dustin May on drums. The live music transformed the space, and drew our biggest crowd so far this summer! While the rest of the band was setting up, we had the exciting opportunity to see the bass up close. Dan showed us how he played it, and a few lucky kids even got to pluck its strings! While the band played on, a team of young artists gathered to create a very special craft. Armed with donated materials like yarn, ribbon, and old paint swatches, the kids worked together to create a village of tiny houses. Some houses they took home, and some they left behind for our "Build a Village" board, which will later be presented to two funders of the arts-in-the=park program. We were so lucky to have so many talented artists participate in this special gift! Check out our photo album for more pictures of our artists and performers! |