Please join us on a virtual tour of The Secret Life of Earth: Alive! Awake! (And Possibly Really Angry!) at the American Visionary Art Museum on Wednesday morning at 11am (EST), 8 am (PST). In a dramatic and beautiful welcome to the museum, visitors are first greeted by the ceiling that is festooned with hundreds of bright, colorful pieces of our plastic from Kehoe Beach. As guide, Rebecca Hoffberger, curator and museum founder, will provide a perfect start to our 50th anniversary Earth Day celebration. For us Earth Day is our Christmas, our Yom Kipper, our Ramadan, our Dewali, too. It is the day we join with others in an international effort to do what we do on a regular basis. Our religious fervor for the planet is expressed in the Jewish concept of halakha, meaning the walk the walk or take the path, sometimes translated as law, which guides many aspects of daily life. Richard recalls the great relief at being at the first Earth Day gathering on the DC Mall, 1970—after years of anti-war protests—here was a celebration of unity and joy. How could there be a reactionary counter to Cesar Chavez’ exhortation to love? No clenched fist, no lines of cops and marshalls. It was the open hand lifted to the sky.
This year our Earth Day plans have been scuttled. We had been anticipating a field trip redux with the San Anselmo Co-op Nursery School. But, with school closures and Covid sheltering orders, we will instead be zooming and on-lining. Last year we hosted a true field trip with kids and adults walking our field to visit the multiple activity stations we had set up.
We do so appreciate the virtual ways that the team at AVAM is keeping the exhibition alive. Along with this virtual tour and online classes, the exhibition has been extended into 2021.
