Harn Museum celebrates Earth Day with performances, activities

April 7, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Harn Museum of Art’s inaugural Earth Day event, “Celebrating Art in Nature,” will entertain and educate University of Florida Cultural Plaza visitors from noon to 4 p.m. on April 22.

Dance performances, live music, interactive art-making activities and information tables from community groups will explore the need for environmental awareness and celebrate the art in nature. The Earth Day event is being held on the terrace of the Harn’s newly opened Mary Ann Harn Cofrin Pavilion. In the event of inclement weather, activities will be moved inside the museum.

Music and dance performances will include an array of Gainesville artists reflecting the Harn’s diverse collection of art work, including performances of Indian dance and music, as well as American art forms like bluegrass music. Docent-led tours of the Harn’s exhibitions will be available all day in the Harn Galleria.

Visitors will not only experience the Harn’s world-renowned exhibitions, they’ll have a chance to watch the creation of award-winning art and try their hand at creating their own. Keeping with the tradition of Harn’s monthly Family Days programs, outdoor art-making activities on the terrace, as well as next door at the Florida Museum of Natural History, will keep the young and the young at heart entertained.

Italian mosaic artist Robert Stout will be working on his commissioned sidewalk mosaics on the terrace and visitors will learn more about how mosaics are created. Watercolor painter Mary Jane Volkmann will give demonstrations and visitors will have a chance to participate in plein air painting. More information and examples of her work can be viewed at www.maryjanevolkmann.com.

Artist Sue Blythe will display several of this year’s Trashformations entries, including a working water fountain built entirely of recycled objects. Since 1998, the Alachua County Office of Waste Alternatives has sponsored Trashformations: The Art of Recycling, an annual recycled art competition where secondary school and college students use found and reusable materials to create works of art that are displayed and judged at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Representatives from Morningside Nature Center, Florida Organic Growers, Well Florida Council, Friends of Paynes Prairies, Sierra Club, Alachua County 4H and Florida Native Plant Society will be available with information on how to preserve the art in nature through earth-friendly living.

WellFlorida will be operating its Cell Phone Recycling Program during the Earth Day celebration. Visitors can stop by their booth to recycle a cell phone or sign up for an organization to be a collection point for the program. For every cell phone recycled, WellFlorida receives a $1 donation that helps serve critical health needs in the community. Cell phones are properly disposed of or refurbished and given to shelters for abused women and children, medical patients awaiting organ transplants and areas where there are no landlines.

Admission to Earth Day, “Celebrating Art in Nature”, is free of charge. The event is sponsored by the Harn Museum of Art in cooperation with the Florida Museum of Natural History. Call (352) 392-9826, ext. 116 for more information, e-mail cbrundige@harn.ufl.edu or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.