The Sunshine Arts group is dedicated to promoting community and empowering children with creative outlets by teaching arts, music, dance, and nature skills. This year, Sunshine Arts intends to continue their tradition of outdoor appreciation and raise interest in a garden project, in which they plan to grow produce with their community and provide a safe habitat for local bird populations in Upper Darby, PA.
In order to demonstrate the importance of urban wildlife to the students and emphasize their role as stewards in maintaining it, some time in June the Sunshine Arts group will give an educational workshop on local wildlife with an arts-related exercise and a trip around the neighborhood, both of which will particularly instruct participants on various local birds and how to best observe and identify them. Then, students will learn about important urban flora by planting bird-friendly plants, clearing weeds, and creating better habitat for local wildlife in the Sunshine Arts garden.
Participants will also make a mobile based on the information they have gathered on the species they observed in the area, incorporating information like habitat, diet, and the calls and movements of the birds. These mobiles will be put on display at Sunshine Arts as part of the event, and will serve as a reminder to students of the value of their neighborhood wildlife.
The entire event will be filmed by resident artist and filmmaker Kat Lehmer, who will create a short documentary feature that will later be shown on the Sunshine Arts website, and who has just created a wonderful update on what’s going on at Sunshine Arts in the video above. The students themselves will also begin work on a humorous bird-themed video as part of their film class following the event.