This past Saturday (October 30th), we at The Children's Museum of the Arts hosted a huge Halloween Block Party in Spring Street Park for children and families! We were also given the very first float in this year's Village Halloween Parade (!), so we wanted this Block Party to serve as an opportunity for the community to collaborate on that project with us. Our float's theme was "Exquisite Corpse" after the popular Surrealist parlor game. In the spirit of that game, our float and Block Party were collaborative efforts in which everyone contributed a piece to a larger whole.
Before the chaos. Face hole photo board painted by me.
Once the fun began. You can see a peek of my "Witch's Cauldron Prints"
hand-painted sign on the right.
More hullabaloo!
The Artist-Educators in Residence (myself, Tati Nguyen, Jacob Hicks and Frank Traynor) were responsible for planning every art-making activity you see here and personally leading two each. My stations were "Harvest Printmaking," at which children used seasonal fruit and vegetable stamps to adorn our parade float sign, and "Witch's Cauldron Prints," at which children made bubble prints with a real, live witch (me, painted green!). That process is demonstrated in my "Witch's Cauldron Prints" video, which you can see in my last blog post.
A child playing cornhole in front of my "Harvest Prints" station.
Our parade float sign made at my Harvest Print station.
Children watching me demonstrate the process of Witch's Cauldron Prints.
Blowing bubbles for our prints together.
A baby dragon getting ready to print!
This monster parts collage kit I made, which you can view in full in my previous blog post or under the "Kids' Content" tab of my website, was also used at a station. Kids cut and collaged these pieces to make their own monsters.
That same baby dragon making a monster collage!
The highlight of the event for me was that we got DJ Vivy, a kid DJ and graduate of Baby DJ School to deejay. I didn't get to meet her in all the commotion but she is everything I wanted to be when I was 12. Big thanks to her agent https://natalieelizabethweiss.com/ (pictured on the right) for making that happen.
From top left: Frank Traynor, me, Jacob Hicks, Tati Nguyen, Tommy Coleman
Overall, the event was a huge success and I'm so proud of what we accomplished. I can't stress enough how much work this tiny group of people put in to make this thing happen! Thank you to our staff and community for making it all worth it.
Press Releases:
https://cmany.org/classes-and-activities/events/halloween-block-party-costume-celebration/
https://cmany.org/blog/view/together-saved-halloween/
Disclaimer: I am expressing only my personal opinions that have not been reviewed by,
are not endorsed by, and do not represent the opinion or viewpoints of the Children's Museum of the Arts.