By Alisha Siebers, VCAC Executive Director
It’s been a busy summer for the Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center as we’ve been fulfilling our mission to enrich, educate, and inspire our community with the cultural arts.
We’ve been making the arts accessible to everyone by bringing free family-friendly projects to the community. We’ve enjoyed engaging with you at the Farmer’s Market, the Mill Nature Walks, and at the most recent family movie night at the Vicksburg Historic Village.
We’ve seen some fantastic art created at our free Creation Stations—beautiful marbled paper, detailed clothespin fairies, paper flowers, and dozens of painted rocks that are being placed around town in monarch butterfly waystations.
We also had a blast introducing kids to the Art of Nature at our summer camps. In the inspiring location of the Vicksburg Outdoor Education Center, kids collaborated on murals, painted outdoor landscapes, created zines, silkscreened T-shirts, designed glass suncatchers, composed lyrics, and much more — including many walks (or runs!) through the beautiful forest platforms at the Center.
Thanks to many generous donations from the community, we were able to offer enough scholarships that no child was turned away from our camps. Look for us this Fall at the Harvest Festival and at the Vicksburg Sesquicentennial celebration for more cultural arts opportunities! You could also join us for a Mill nature walk and craft on September 10 or October 8.
Mark your calendars for a rare opportunity to experience Japanese theater on September 30. For Destination Japan, the VCAC is flying in experts to perform a series of short Noh plays. The international performance ensemble Theatre Nohgaku (www.theatrenohgaku.org) will explain and perform aspects of traditional Japanese theater, including the intricately carved wood masks, elegant costumes, traditional musical instruments, and the unique performance style.
After the show, you’re welcome to join us at a reception where you can see the costumes up close and meet the performers. It starts at 7 p.m. September 30 at the Schoolcraft High School Auditorium. Tickets are $10 and are available at the door or in advance through our website: http://www.vicksburgarts.com.