Friday, April 24, 2020

Earth Day Virtual 20/20


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.

Trash to Treasure


Since the COVID-19 sheltering-in-place directive and the closing of schools we have been teaching an online class to grandkids Clementine and Aloysius. We are always on the lookout for resources we can use to enrich what we have to offer. The latest newsletter from the American Visionary Art Museum prompted us to poke around on their website. We were super excited when we eventually ended up on the Visionary Activities page that is 
chock-a-block full of virtual experiences including an engaging tutorial on how to make Critter Crayons. 


Plus! plus! we discovered the fun fab Trash to Treasure activity that, to our great delight and surprise, features our beach plastic project.

What a good idea!!! We will give it a try with Clem and AO. Come on kids, it’s trash to treasure time. We have plenty of both.

So glad that the date for the The Secret Life of Earth show has been extended on in to 2021. We will get through this COVID-19 thing and will soon be down to earth and out and about again.