CORNING, NY – Led by The Rockwell Museum, a summer-long youth program involving five community organizations and over 135 students will culminate with a Garden of Fire Festival on August 22 from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. in Denison Park, Corning NY. The Festival will be held for children who participated in the summer program and their families. The Festival will include many family activities, including a lampworking demonstration with The Corning Museum of Glass, animals in the park by Tanglewood Nature Center, a blacksmith demonstration with the Corning Painted-Post Historical Society, a giant weaving activity with Giant Knitting Nancy, an interactive activity based on the book, Tear Soup with CareFirst, a smoke house model demonstration on safety with the Corning Fire Department, and a variety of garden themed games.
Artists Tony Moretti and Gwen Quigley will display a large mandala sculpture and lead a mandala themed project during the event. The large sculpture will incorporate six hand-made mixed-media medallions created by six local artists; Gigi Alvaré, Mavin Ambrose, Lynn Dates, Enolia Foti, Caitlin Hyde, and Sue Lewis-Varga. In addition to the demonstrations and activities, there will be a special Garden of Fire Youth Art Exhibit on display showcasing the artwork created during the summer sessions. After the event, the artwork will be displayed in The Rockwell’s Student Gallery through September 22, 2014.
Wegmans is sponsoring the event by providing water and freshly grilled corn for participants.
The Garden of Fire is a collaborative summer youth program provided by community organizations and local artists to regional youth centers. The seven week program provided an in-depth series of workshops that focused on gardening, art, science, nutrition, and individual growth. Each week, children from the youth centers participated in a workshop that incorporated themes of nature, growing cycles, healthy food and art, sun, light and fire. Throughout the summer, participants learned how to use the garden and the elements of nature as inspiration in the creation of innovating art, music and poetry projects.
“Each component of the program offers students a unique perspective and opportunities which they would not otherwise be exposed to in their communities. It also allows students of varied backgrounds to work together to learn new skills and create within a safe and supportive environment,” says Gigi Alvaré, Director of Education at The Rockwell Museum.
“The Garden of Fire program is encouraged and supported by the director of the Triangle Fund, Chris Sproule and inspired by the Extended Learning Network of the Southern Tier whose purpose is to build capacity, depth and the integration of art and science programs serving about 135 youth in Steuben County. The Rockwell Museum is the lead organization for the Garden of Fire collaborative project, which includes 171 Cedar Arts Center, CareFirst, Tanglewood Nature Center and The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes,” Alvaré states.
The goal of the program is to educate youth about nutrition and health, art, music and natural science through interactive experiences. The Garden of Fire title represents the gardening and fire ceramics activities that will be offered as part of the program. The connection between gardens and pottery includes not only food storage and cooking, but more fundamentally in the fact that the clay used in ceramics comes from regional soils.
Each youth center visited The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY where they had the opportunity to view the Museum Galleries to learn about the collection and draw inspiration from the contemporary pottery exhibit, On Fire! The Nancy and Alan Cameros Collection of Southwest Pottery. They participated in a pottery workshop in The Museum’s Education Center to sculpt clay bowls to resemble cross-sections of different fruits and vegetables. A professional drummer visited each youth center and provided a drumming workshop where she exposed the participants to a wide array of instruments and guided the groups in writing chants together. The program included a workshop with CareFirst who focused their session on a book, Tear Soup, where topics about dealing with emotions related to grief and loss were addressed. Throughout the summer, participants learned how to use the garden and the elements of nature as a source of inspiration in the creation of art, music and poetry. Youth participating in the program were exposed to innovative art-making projects where they had the opportunity to print with vegetables on flags and make drums out of recycled containers.
The program series connects people from all areas of the region to each other and provides a comprehensive understanding of the connection between everything around us. The Garden of Fire connects the garden to the arts, drumming to emotions, science to food and growth and highlights the importance of honoring the Earth in a variety of ways.
