While the summer may be officially over on Monday (despite the continuation of summer-like weather), I’ll be looking forward to Silverwood Park and mnartists.org’s Field Trip on September 24th for an extension of summer’s best outdoor activities. Come try your hand at fort building, collaborative art projects, and other creative play. Don’t forget to hang around for the live music and nature-inspired poetry readings.
Stay for a while or spend the entire day playing at the park. Pack a picnic, relax on a blanket, and celebrate our local artistic community in this awesome natural setting. Unlike the fieldtrips you and I may remember, bottled wine and beer are allowed at this one. Talk about the best of everything…
ACTIVITY SCHEDULE
Lawn Games
Noon – 5 pm
Great Lawn (front)
Grab some friends (or friendly strangers) and start up a game of bocce ball, badminton or bag-toss on Silverwood’s Great Lawn. Play with a giant parachute and give hula hooping a shot. Games will be available to check out, or bring your favorite from home! Any up for a game of horseshoes?
Art-Making
Noon – 5 pm
Silverwood Gallery/Veranda
Get collaborative with local artists leading a nature-inspired art-making activity! Curious? Me too. This one is going to be a surprise!
Capture the Flag
Noon – 5 pm
Great Lawn (back)
Get competitive with other artists in a massive game of this summer camp favorite! While I still fear being picked last at team sports, I’ve been assured artists and nature enthusiasts are much less competitive than my high school gym classmates. See you on the field!
Fort-Building
Noon – 5 pm
Dyers Garden
Silverwood Park’s Tom Moffatt invites you to create forts among Silverwood’s trees using natural elements. No secret passwords needed to participate! (This might be my favorite activity of the day.)
Nature Hikes and Poetry Walks – Art on Foot
Visitor Center Entrance
On the hour at 1 pm, 3 pm and 5 pm
6 Minnesota poets created poems installed along park trails, creating poetry stops that are accessible through your phone. Join the poets in person for a special live version of this tech-meets-literature project as they read their poems live throughout the park while one of Silverwood’s knowledgeable naturalists leads you through this gorgeous new park.
Plein Air Painters
Noon – 5 pm
Throughout the park
Observe Carl Judson and fellow plein air painters throughout the park as they capture nature’s splendor at their easels or bring your own supplies and join in. Demonstrations will be provided. Perhaps I’ll bone up on some good ol’ Bob Ross lessons to prepare for this one…
Paddling
Noon – 5 pm
Head to the beach and take a free cruise in a canoe or other watercraft. Nothing says extended summer in MN like a trip on the water!
Square-Dancing – The Call and Answer Project
3 – 5 pm
Amphitheater
Artist Amanda Lovelee welcomes you to hold hands with stranger and connect through the joy of square-dancing as a part of her ongoing Call and Answer Project, featuring a live band. (This might also be my favorite activity of the day.)
Art Circles
Noon – 9 pm
Throughout the park
Take a self-guided tour of the many artworks installed throughout the park as a part of Silverwood’s Art Circles, commissioned sculptures by Minnesota artists. On view find work by Aaron Dysart, Alonso Sierralta, Richard Bonk, Rebecca Krinke, Mary Johnson, Sean Connaughty, Tamsie Ringler, and Alexa Horochowski. It’s like those art museum fieldtrips you had to go on every year in elementary school, but way better because it is outside and there’s no corresponding homework assignment!
MUSIC SCHEDULE
Music of the Sun – The Eclectic Ensemble 
1:30 pm and 3:30 pm
Visitor Center Patio
Music Of The Sun (MOTS) is a solar and bicycle powered outdoor improvisational ambient music series directed toward metro area park and trail system users. Through out the warmer months, The Eclectic Ensemble loads a full-range PA system and instruments into three custom-built bicycle trailers and pedals to the metro area parks and bike trails to perform free to the public. Music in the Sun Video
Malamanya
6 pm
Amphitheater
Malamanya is a Minneapolis-based band that celebrates the traditional rhythms and melodies of Cuban son, salsa, samba, and the local music of Central and Latin America while adding a touch of our own ritmo to the mix with our original song writing. Our acoustic driven dance rhythms draw on the organic form of days gone by. Convivial and contagious we bring “el sabor” of nostalgic times past into the present.
Campfire Concerts
7 pm
Patio, Dyers Garden, Island
Enjoy performances by Brian Laidlaw and the Family Trade, Matt Latterell and The White Whales
FOOD
Food provided by:
Silverwood Park Café
Open: 9:00 am – 8:00 pm
Magic Bus Café
Open: Hours to be announced http://www.magicbuscafe.com/
Or bring your own picnic!
Hope to see you all at Silverwood on September 24th!
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