Fredericton Word Feast Wraps with Saturday Spectacular
Fredericton’s annual literary festival Word Feast was hosted Sept. 17- 22. The literary menu included reading, workshops and fun literary events. One of the final events of the closing weekend was the Saturday Spectacular.
“There is a strong relationship between visual art and literature,” said Christina Thomson, Programme Coordinator at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
Word Feast is a volunteer run event that began in 2016 and aims to promote and foster literacy in the community.
“The vision of the festival is to inspire creativity in our community and celebrate the authors and artists that are in this region,” said Zach Hapeman, Co-Secretary and Children’s Programming at Word Feast.
The all ages event was hosted in the Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s Education room. Kids enjoyed making bookmarks and colouring stars to help create a poster of Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
Thomson says the gallery likes to collaborate with other organizations because it brings different communities together.
The event had a band and a live reading set up in another room but because of small attendance, the reading was moved into the Education room for a more intimate setting.
Children’s author Kelly Cooper read from her book If a Horse Had Words. Though her audience was small, the children were engaged in the reading. She answered questions and spoke about her experiences growing up on a farm.
Hapeman says the event was a success despite low attendance.
“The objective is really to bring together words and art work and music to draw children in, to inspire them and show them that there are lots of ways to practice and celebrate creativity,” he said.
At the end of the event there was a book draw. The child that pulled the blue lollipop out of the bag won a signed copy of Cooper’s book as well as a photo with the author.
Even though not everyone was able to win a book, the kids all left with a smile and a sweet treat.
