Trees and shrubs improve soil and water conservation, store carbon, moderate local climate by providing shade, regulate temperature extremes, increase wildlife habitat and improve the land’s capacity to adapt to climate change. These are all benefits forests and shrubs offer the environment and in turn, us, says the international Forest Stewardship Council.
“Forests regulate our climate, clean the air we breathe, and filter the water we drink. They also provide habitat for more than two-thirds of terrestrial wildlife and plants. They are one of our most important resources, offering a renewable supply of the materials and goods we need for a more sustainable future.”
To celebrate trees and their importance, legendary “Celebration” Artists Paula Jardine and Cathy Stubington are coming back to Golden to engage with the community with this very special family project Walk of the Woods.
Stubington is a member of Runaway Moon Theatre, a small, but mighty theatre company based in Enderby BC that has produced puppet theatre, community plays and community spectacles for the last 20 years in locations across BC.
Runaway Moon is best known for creating innovative, magical productions that infuse the communities it works in with robust, creative, inclusive activity and offers audiences narratives about contemporary themes through a lens of folklore, awe and curiosity — what could we learn about this if we looked at things a little differently?
Jardine is an artist with a background in dance, theatre, and writing with an emphasis on Canadian history and folk traditions in ritual and seasonal celebrations. She is interested in reviving and redefining community arts and the artist’s role in the community, exploring and cultivating forms that celebrate and connect us to each other, the land, and natural cycles.
Jardine and Stubington first visited Golden in December 2006 and gave a few dozen folks of all ages workshops on how to make lanterns, costumes and papiermaché characters. That gathering sparked the idea of the Snow King, following which Golden’s first MasqueParade was celebrated with some pageantry and a parade from the covered bridge to the civic centre where folks danced the night away.
When the artist called this Spring with the hope to bring to Golden their Walk the Trees project that they have taken to other B.C. communities, Kicking Horse Culture jumped at the opportunity.
Walk of the Woods is a community art project to learn about and connect with the trees we live with. Through drop-in craft making and small parades, participants will create costumes representing the different forest regions of BC.
Jardine and Stubington are expected to be in town from the morning of Sunday, July 23 through the evening of Wednesday, July 26.
The event will kick it off on Sunday mid-morning (time and location TBC) with a one-hour Tree Walk and Talk with Stubington, Jardine and biologist Aita Bezzola and artist Kathryn Cooke. If you would like to attend or participate you can email to info@kickinghorseculture.ca
That Sunday afternoon, the artists will set up in Spirit Square for three days of engagement and interaction with all who drop by. Tents will be set up with supplies and would-be participants can drop in to enjoy a tree costume making, bark printing, leaf and blossom-making tea party. And everyone is welcome to take part in the “Be A Tree Movement Exercise!”
The event will culminate in a Walk of the Woods pop up Tree Parade in Spirit Square mid-day on Wednesday, July 26 and later, a Summer Kicks performance by rockabilly great Cousin Harley.
To keep on top of plans for the Walk of the Woods, visit kickinghorseculture.ca.
