Sign up for kids to explore the arts, coming on May 12 in Morristown

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Registration is now open for the May 12 Children’s Day of Art, a full day of arts workshops in multiple media at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown.

children's day of art logoYoungsters ages 6 to 13 will rotate through six workshops in cartooning, drama, pottery, poetry, music and eco-sculpture, plus dabble in “food art” during lunch with Chef Melody of the Main Event. The day begins with sign in at 8:30 a.m. and ends with a 4 p.m. reception for the young artists, their parents and the instructors.

The event marks the culmination of a two-week Spring Arts Festival hosted by St. Peter’s and featuring the second annual MG Kids Art Show, which begins with a grand opening featuring hands-on kids art activities and a jazz coffeehouse on April 27 and continues with MorristownGreen.com’s Wordplay II, an evening of poetry and spoken word performances on May 1.

On May 6, St. Peter’s will be an exhibit site for the Morristown Art Walk sponsored by the Arts Council of the Morris Area and ArtSpace Studio.

You can help support the art day and festival here.

“This will be a true community event, with kids participating from various local organizations and houses of worship,” said Sharon Sheridan, festival coordinator. “We want to offer children the chance to have fun and explore their creativity in multiple ways through the arts.”

Sheridan, an award-winning journalist and editor of MG Kids, organized MorristownGreen.com’s inaugural kids art show last May and will teach the poetry workshops on May 12. A lifelong poet, she performed at last spring’s Wordplay and is the author of Pages of Faith: The Art of Spiritual Scrapbooking.

The other instructors are:

  • The Rev. Janet Broderick, St. Peter’s rector, ran her own pottery shop in the East Village of New York before becoming a priest. Broderick Pottery sold to businesses including Tiffany & Co., Barneys and Neiman Marcus. She has taught poetry classes for children and adults and periodically demonstrates pottery during sermons.
  • Solange De Santis writes about theater for many publications, including Theatermania.com and her blog, Solange on Theater. She has directed, stage-managed and developed plays and designed sound for community and school productions. In May 2001, she earned a master’s degree from New York University in educational theater.
  • Morristown cartoonist Paul Laud is the author of Laughing Out Laud: Tripping Over Party Lines and a weekly cartoonist for MorristownGreen.com and other publications. In May, he was a featured artist in MG’s community workshop “Cartooning 101: Doodling with a Message!”
  • Darryl Roland is music director at St. Peter’s, where he conducts an intergenerational choir. He recently received an honorary fellow award from the Guild of Church Musicians in a presentation in London by the archbishop of Canterbury for his work directing the choir school at the Episcopal cathedral in Delaware.
  • Myndi Smithers, who will lead the eco-sculpture workshop recycling “trash” into art, is artist in residence a Fairleigh Dickinson University and a teaching assistant to Professor Judy Moonelis in the ceramics studio. During the summers, she is head of the ceramic studio at Camp Horizons at Newark Academy. She exhibits paintings and ceramics at juried and invitational art shows in New York and New Jersey.
  • Morristown’s celebrity chef Melody McGinley Whitelaw, “caterer to the stars” from the Main Event, introduces children to the basics of nutrition and cooking and being “green” through her Kids’ Green Kitchen program. She regularly gives cooking demonstrations at Macy’s Herald Square and WOR Radio events.

Advance registration is required for the Children’s Day of Art. Cost is $20, with some scholarships available.

Submissions from preschool through high school artists in any media are welcome for the MG Kids Art Show. They can be dropped off at St. Peter’s on South Street. Deadline is April 20.

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The art show will be held in conjunction with an art contest run by the Family Success Center of Morris County. Contest entries will be donated to decorate the center’s new office at the Spring Street CDC.

The art show will open April 27, with the Family Success Center providing hands-on arts activities for children from 3-6 p.m. and a jazz coffeehouse featuring the Peter Moffitt Medicine Show beginning at 7 p.m.

Poets and other spoken-word artists can sign up to participate in Wordplay May 1 by contacting Morristowngreen@gmail.com, 973-944-0530.

For more information about the Spring Arts Festival, click here or e-mail sharon@sharonsheridan.com.

Pottery closeup by sharon sheridan
IT'S OKAY FOR KIDS TO GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY at the May 12 Children's Day of Art at St. Peter's. In fact, it's required! Photo by Sharon Sheridan

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