Art festival for kids Saturday

Daily American Republic

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- It's the day more than 1,000 children get to have fun doing art activities -- and they're all in the same back yard.

The eighth annual Arts Festival and Art on the Run will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum at 421 N. Main.

"This year's festival celebrates the Margaret Harwell Museum's 20th anniversary and honors the art of internationally acclaimed watercolorist Paul Jackson," said Kati Wylie, vice president of the Friends of the Harwell Museum Board. "The Margaret Harwell Art Museum is where Jackson held his first major exhibition almost 10 years ago."

In September, Jackson donated a small mosaic that has been set into the front sidewalk of the museum. It is a mosaic interpretation of the Lewis and Clark design he submitted in April to the U.S. Mint. Jackson's design was selected as one of the five finalists for use on the Missouri quarter that will be released in 2003.

Popular activities

Some popular art activities returning this year are paper hat making, car painting and funky junk sculptures.

"Paper hat making has been a huge hit," said Tina Magill, museum director. "That's where girls shape recycled newspapers over a child's head to form a hat. Then the kids decorate them with feathers and flowers. We had kids last year that wore their hats all day.

"The car painting is a favorite of the kids. Larry Hillis is bringing in a car and the kids will paint it with Tempura paint, using brushes and fingers. They won't leave a single inch that's not painted." "We've been saving bizarre stuff for funky junk sculptures," Wylie said. "Stuff normal people would throw away, kids can make sculptures out of it."