Hey friends in DC and around the world!

We are just about six months away from the JUMP!STAR festival and preparations are going really well. On my last visit to DC, I met with students and teachers from American University, GWU, and Gallaudet, as well as artists, park rangers, elementary school teachers and story tellers in the area. (Maybe you’ll recall that JUMP!STAR is a social sculpture being presented by Washington Project for the Arts that is dedicated to inventing the cultural traditions - the food, the songs, the dances – to celebrate a major change in our North Star. It’s culminating in the form of a festival in the NoMa area on September 24, 2016.) It was wonderful meeting with excited folks while I was in town, and brainstorming ways for their organizations to be involved.

Right now, I’m back in my studio in Brooklyn, working on the illuminated paper sculptures that will be part of the festival’s night parade, Skyping with our amazing Creative and Research Teams, and looking ahead to my next visit to the DC area in mid-May. We’d love for you and your group (or class or family or friends) to be part of JUMP!STAR at this early stage of inventing, and are scheduling workshops and presentations now.  We’ll be hosting several (free or cheap!) cyanotype and lantern-making workshops, and conducting brainstorming sessions designed to establish ways we can incorporate your group’s specific skills or interests in the festival. Do you make music? Dance? Knit? Paint? Print? Bake? Study the stars? Like the idea of inventing an intergalactic holiday? Drop us a line so we can schedule an in-person meeting or workshop for your group in mid-May if you’re DC-based, or a Skype chat if you’re somewhere else in the world! There’s a lot of really fun inventing to be done!