Children’s EcoArts Festival

April 28, 2012      11:00-5:00 p.m.

Harriet Island Grounds and Pavilion. St. Paul, Minnesota

WHAT: The 5th Annual Children’s EcoArts Festival is a free, family-friendly event that educates and inspires the next generation of stewards for our earth through the arts. Focusing on healthy waters as the origin of all life, this festival honors the many facets of diversity, from bio-diversity to cultural diversity.

WHO: The event, produced by ArtStart, a non-profit arts organization with an emphasis on environmental stewardship, brings together 20+ schools throughout the 7-county Metro area. This free family event is the culmination of school residencies and community workshops in which all ages create art work with artists to learn about, honor, and celebrate our greatest natural resource, the Mississippi River. This festival features over 110 artists from diverse cultures who perform and demonstrate their art form, as week as environmental education and groups also lead workshops.

HOW: The event offers something for everyone!  Just as the currents of the Mississippi River are distinct, yet merge to form this great waterway through our cities, so too does the rich diversity of our community come together through the arts at the Children’s EcoArts Festival.

Participating in School Residencies and Community Workshops attendees:

• Learn about the Mississippi watershed and the importance of clean and healthy waters through lessons from ArtStart’s River EcoJourneys Curriculum
• Create puppets, masks, banners, and other art work inspired by folktales and stories about the origin of water from different cultures
• Create River Reflections, poems about water published in a booklet

Participating in the Children’s EcoArts Festival, attendees:

• Celebrate in a community pageant at the river to honor/express our care and concern for the health of all waters as symbolized by the Mississippi River
• Participate in free hands-on reuse art activities led by professional artists
• Gain more knowledge about environmental issues and actions
• Learn how to participate in a zero waste event