Although its main event is still several months away, the SpringWorks Festival will be hosting two events in Stratford this month in an effort to “amplify ideas of goodness.”
Although its main event is still several months away, the SpringWorks Festival will be hosting two events in Stratford this month in an effort to “amplify ideas of goodness.”
Advertisement 2
Article content
Article content
Recommended Videos
Article content
Next Friday and Saturday, the Stratford-based festival will present Puppet Shorts, a mini film festival in conjunction with Lights On Stratford, and Grounds for Goodness, which features an interactive and evolving art gallery, along with other offerings, by Toronto-based artist Ruth Howard.
“I think the turning of the year is part of why one does things,” SpringWorks artistic director Eileen Smith said of why residents should come out to the events. “I think the dead of winter and the light starting to come up, the light is shifting from the longest, darkest (time of the year) and there’s a lot of potential ways people could look in the world as having less optimum ideas.
“So I feel like versions of putting one’s energy into amplifying ideas of goodness and possibility and hope, and what people have, factually, that has happened to them that is constructive and positive.”
Advertisement 3
Article content
Attendees will have the chance to do just that while participating in Grounds for Goodness, which will be hosted at the Stratford Perth Museum. While this transitional art galley exists as an exhibition, there will be an opportunity for patrons to add their own stories about kindness to the exhibit through activities such as walk-in embroidery. These stories can range from people trying to get a cat unstuck from a tree to Syrian refugees escaping cataclysmic traumaSmith said.
“It’s around the premise that most of us have grown up with the awareness that people can be harmful and, particularly in groups, horrible to other people, but to change the lens to looking at the things where people actually are kind and helpful, and we don’t put as much focus on people doing good things and using their hearts on the other side, so we’re looking at amplifying the ways in which people are good to each other,” Smith said.
Advertisement 4
Article content
The mini-film fest, held at Stratford’s city hall auditorium, will show two presentations of stop motion and puppetry. These 45-minute screenings of Kidscapes and Tales of the Earth both present one-to-eight-minute short films from independent artists that were funded by Heather Henson, daughter of famous Muppets and Sesame Street creator Jim Henson.
“They’re just delightful, live-action, stop-motion and animated puppets, and they’re paired besides the light exhibition that’s at the Market Square. . . . So you could come to the show with your kids and then go experience the lights outside, or go to the lights and come to the show right after,” Smith said.
Beyond these events, PuppetWorks is getting set for Emilio’s A Million Chameleons by Adam Francis Proulx on March 22, and is already in the planning stages of their World in a Weekend: International Puppet Festival set for July 31 to Aug. 4.
Puppet Shorts runs at 4 pm and 6 pm on Jan. 10 and 11, while Grounds for Goodness runs from Jan. 11 to Jan. 19. Tickets for both events are pay what you can. More information and a detailed schedule for Grounds for Goodness can be found at springworksfestival.ca.
Article content