Join Pollinator art workshops on Sundays in May & June

Help Clay and Paper Theatre and Park People create pollinator-themed art on Sundays in May & June. The awesome creations you make will be part of a public parade and festival on Sunday, June 18 in Bartlett Parkette to mark the start of pollinator week. The festival celebrates the Bee Line on the Green Line—a project by Park People, local residents, and the City of Toronto to create new pollinator gardens along this urban hydro corridor.

Be part of the parade making process by helping to fabricate the pollinator puppets, images, and costumes that will be featured in the Bee Line festival. Like to perform? Clay and Paper Theatre will also offer performance participation opportunities, such as a puppeteering or stilt walking.

The Sunday workshops are open 11am to 5pm on a drop-in basis on the following dates:

• Sunday May 14
• Sunday May 21,
• Sunday May 28
• Sunday June 5
• Sunday June 11

Sunday workshops will offer a variety of activities, led and coached by Clay and Paper Theatre associate artists. Come by and discover:

• Block Printing on Paper and Fabric. Image designs will be provided for transfer and carving, or ready-made blocks will be available for direct printing. Printing activities will help create flags, banners and a park installation.
• Costume Images with Cardboard. Sculpt and paint with cardboard, help create wearable pollinator and flower images and other props that actors and participants will be able to wear the day of the event.
• Fabric Creations. Help dye, paint or sew pollinator and flower images that will be part of the colourful parade and pageant.
• Giant Puppet Building. Assist in the creation of some of our larger puppet images built with willow and other lightweight materials.
• Stilt Walking. Please check back for dates and times. We will offer three stilt walking workshops in preparation for the day of the parade and pageant. Stilts and costumes will be provided. Learn a new skill and help boost the pageant energy. Workshops will take place at Bartlett Park.
• Performance. The day of the event costumes and flags will be made available to all community members to wear for the parade and pageant itself. But if you’d like to have a more specific role in the performance, Clay and Paper Theatre will hold a meeting for volunteers on Sunday, June 4th at 1pm. For more info please contact clayandpaper@gmail.comIf you have a specific skill that you’d like to share with Clay and Paper Theatre (e.g. sewing, illustration, stilt walking, musical talent) please contact them directly at clayandpaper@gmail.com.

Stay as long as you like and bring friends and family. Activities are geared for a wide range of maturity in skills, but with a suggested range of 10 years and older. Children MUST be accompanied and teamed with an adult.

More About Clay and Paper Theatre

Now in its 23nd season, Clay & Paper Theatre is Toronto’s only theatre company that works exclusively in public space. This is theatre of exaggeration, of giant puppetry, of satire and wit gone awry. This is a little theatre company asking big questions with humour and irreverence. Clay & Paper Theatre produces plays, pageants and parades with the community, grounded in the idea that performance in public space is an act of cultural transformation. Our practice of building, rehearsing, and performing in full public view is an attempt on our part to “bring back the commons,” reunite art with the daily life of the community, and to make art accessible to all.

Clay and Paper Theatre gratefully acknowledges support from the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Foundation, The City of Toronto, Parks & Recreation, Miziwe Biik Aboriginal Employment & Training and SERVICE Canada.