Whether you fancy yourself to be left-brained or right-brained — or you find the concept to be a myth — letting your creative juices flow is good for brain health. Ask the nonprofit Arkwings Foundation, and they’d agree. “Our primary mission is promoting mind, body, and spirit wellness,” says Jana Wilson, executive director. “Right now the way that’s manifesting itself is through integrating arts and nature — the healing power of arts and nature.”
For a taste of that healing, Arkwings is hosting its annual Frayser Local Arts Festival. “We want people to get a look at the different ways they can express themselves creatively,” Wilson says of the festival’s aim to encompass all forms of art.
Inside, exhibits will fill the grounds’ 1930s house with visual arts, available to view and purchase. Meanwhile, culinary artist Cardi Fuqua, owner of Naked, will demonstrate recipes made from the fresh produce and herbs from the art garden. Outside, poetry, spoken word, song, dance, and yoga will populate the performance schedule, and artisans will set up shop to sell handmade goods.
At outdoor creativity stations, festival-goers can paint mini murals on repurposed vinyl banners, write their thoughts on slips of paper and clip them onto strings that hang down from the Poetry Tree, and touch, feel, and smell the herbs in the garden before making herbal salts of their own.
“It’s a chance for people to get creative and enjoy themselves and nature,” Wilson says.
Frayser Local Arts Festival, 2034 James, Saturday, October 23rd, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., free.