by Dennis Dalman
The happy ongoing success of the Art in the Park summer program in St. Joseph continues, with two final sessions scheduled from 9-11 a.m. on Thursday, July 20 at Millstream Park and at that same time Thursday, July 27 in Centennial Park.
The art program is free and open to children 3 years old to elementary school ages, and children from other cities and areas are welcome to participate. Children have come from as far away as Sartell, Melrose and Albany to enjoy the sessions.
Art in the Park was started two summers ago by a mother-and-daughter team, Lisa Wolf of St. Joseph, the mother; and her daughter, Aquiliana, age 14 at the time. Aquiliana’s sister, Mireya, also volunteers time to help the participants.
Art in the Park is a gathering every Thursday morning in the summer for children who enjoy getting together and making art works of a variety of kinds: coloring, drawing, painting, air-dried clay animals, pinch pots, stained glass made with certain kinds of beads and glue, and the very popular sticker pages on which kids find sticker shapes on the pages and match them up to numbers to eventually form the shape of an animal.
There are seven sessions each summer at St. Joseph parks. The sessions are even popular with children who are in childcare homes who are accompanied to the events by their childcare operators.
“We couldn’t believe it!,” said Lisa in an interview last summer with the Newsleader. “All different types enjoyed it – grandparents, moms, dads. It was all so diverse. What was really fun was that older siblings of younger kids would come along too. They’d play volleyball or another activity in the parks, like at Millstream Park, and some of them did art works too. I call the program ‘Building Community’.”
The support from the community has been tremendous,” Lisa said. “Tracy Smith, the owner of Daisy A Day (floral shop) in St. Joseph donated flowers for one of our sessions. She was so generous. The kids made bead caterpillars to twist up the donated flower stems. They had so much fun.”
Anyone who wants to join one or both of the last two sessions of Art in the Park this July should just show up at the parks. There is no need to register.
Lisa and Aquiliana Wolf recommend attendees should bring a snack or two and bottled water. Also, some parks don’t have their bathrooms open unless some rented event is taking place in the park so it’s recommended that guardians/parents/daycare providers persuade children to use the bathroom before leaving home.
Ezra Newman of Cold Spring is one of many out-of-towners who loves to visit the Art in the Park festivities in St. Joseph. He is holding a blue “caterpillar” that he made to adorn a flower donated by Daisy A Day in St. Joseph.
Kait Lofquist of St. Joseph has creative fun during Art in the Park.
Ivan Wolf of St. Joseph chooses beads for an art project at an Art in the Park session.
