Arts fest: Interactive activities for all ages
When Beth Seaborne agreed to run an interactive activity at last year’s Creemore Festival of the Arts, she imagined that her target audience would be children. She set up sensory bins and a button sewing station which turned out to be a big hit with adults. That’s why this year’s activities will target all ages.
A Tinker Table will offer a chance to take apart clocks to see the mechanisms up close. Seaborne says clocks were among the earliest cordless machines and for people who have grown up in an age of computers, this may be a first chance to experience how gears work. Clock parts will be available to be beaded and embellished and turned into suncatchers or garden ornaments.
For those who aren’t afraid to get a bit dirty, there will be an opportunity to create pendulum art. A giant pendulum, suspended from a tripod will swing through paint to cast images on paper.
The third part of the installation will trace the evolution of raw materials into finished garments. Members of the Huronia Hand Spinners will transform raw wool into single strands which can then be incorporated into suncatchers or used in knitting, weaving or rug hooking.
Knitters from the Knitting in Public project will be demonstrating their skills as they create socks from an 1880s pattern used to outfit soldiers in both World Wars. Seaborne says the exhibit, located outside Station on the Green, will connect festivalgoers to our not-so-distant past and foster an understanding of where clothing comes from. The whole thing will support the Adapt and Evolve theme of Steve McDonalds’s artificial intelligence work shown inside the Station on the Green.
Seaborne’s first career was running children’s camps and recreation programming. She went on to leadership roles in retail management but during the pandemic went back to her Early Childhood Education roots. When the concept for the Village Green was being developed, she was excited by the potential for this sort of interactive programming.
To participate, visit Creemore Station on the Green at 10 Caroline St. E., between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
