Lotus Firebay Workshops To Engage Underserved Youth
This summer, Lotus is partnering with the Boys and Girls Club and the Banneker Community Center to serve over one hundred students through workshops at the Lotus Firebay. Students will have the opportunity to engage in multi-cultural visual arts and music activities.
Students from the Banneker Community Center will learn about Latin American music and art. Participants will have an opportunity to create and decorate their own güiro (wee-row), a traditional Caribbean musical instrument from Puerto Rico. The students will also learn about Huichol yarn paintings, a traditional art form of the Huichol people who are indigenous to Mexico and live in the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains of Northwest Mexico.
Students from the Boys and Girls Club will join us at the Lotus Firebay to do crafts from the 2021 Lotus Blossoms Bazaar Outreach Kits. Students will learn about Japanese origami and adire cloth, made by the Yoruba people of Nigeria, and make items that correspond with the lessons.
“We are excited to bring students into the Lotus Firebay for these workshops that will create opportunities to experience, celebrate, and explore the diversity of the world’s cultures, through music and the arts,” Lotus Operations & Visual Arts Program Manager Amanda Hutchins said.
“Lotus values our partnerships with community organizations who enrich the lives of underserved youth and adults in Bloomington,” Lotus Executive Director Tamara Loewenthal said. “We are delighted to facilitate visual arts workshops that engage and educate our stakeholders about world cultural traditions and to see our newly renovated Lotus Firebay become the home for these workshops.”Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Lotus held workshops in the Firebay during the winter and spring as well. Workshops included lantern-making and Lotus Blossoms Outreach Kit sessions with the Boys and Girls Club.
