Plenty of hands-on fun
Arts and Living History Festival held inside arena
Photo by Deb Gau SammyJo Miller helped James and Grace Spencer pick out a spot for paper quilt squares the colored on a community art project. The project was one of the activities at Saturday's Arts and Living History Festival in Marshall.
Photo by Deb Gau Building covered wagons out of paper was one of the crafts kids could do at the Lyon County Museum's booth at the fair.
Photo by Deb Gau SammyJo Miller helped James and Grace Spencer pick out a spot for paper quilt squares the colored on a community art project. The project was one of the activities at Saturday's Arts and Living History Festival in Marshall.
Photo by Deb Gau Building covered wagons out of paper was one of the crafts kids could do at the Lyon County Museum's booth at the fair.
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MARSHALL -- It was a rainy weekend, but there was still plenty to do for area residents coming to the Red Baron Arena and Expo on Saturday.
Both kids and adults got to see skills like spinning, carving and leatherworking come to life, do crafts or join in a community art project.
The Arts and Living History Festival in Marshall has been going for a few years, ever since the city of Marshall's 150th anniversary celebrations. While the weather last weekend wasn't good for outdoor events, the festival was fortunate to be able to move indoors to the Arena and Expo, said Cassi Weiss, of Visit Marshall.
"It's nice that this space was available," said Lyon County Museum director Jennifer Andries.
The museum had a few different tables set up, with a variety of kids' activities like building a papercraft covered wagon.
"We thought of hands-on activities connected with fall," Andries said.
Kids and families were also working on making fall-themed bouquets, and even putting together pinwheels.
In addition to vendor booths and arts and history activities, visitors could also learn more about local organizations. Local Boy Scouts were running a booth with activities like knot-tying, and a fishing game that attracted quite a few kids.
"We're trying to recruit people, so we're showing what you can do in Boy Scouts," said Nolan Schultz.
There were a lot of fun things to share about Scouting, members said.
"You get to go on a lot of camp-outs, and do projects, and learn some new skills," fellow Boy Scout Joshua Arends said.
One of the arts activities at the festival was a collaborative artwork led by SammyJo Miller. Visitors could draw or color on small squares of paper, which would then be pieced together to fill up an outline of the state of Minnesota. Miller said a heart would go over the location of Marshall on the map.
"I kind of brainstormed different ideas," for community artworks for the Arts and Living History Festival, Miller said.
The Minnesota patchwork map idea was something Miller had done at a local festival in Worthington in the past. It also felt like a good fit for Saturday's event.
"It's got lots of colors, I love that,” Miller said.
As Miller spoke, visitor Grace Spencer brought James Spencer over to choose a spot on the map of Minnesota for his own patchwork square.
"This is fun," Grace Spencer said. "This is our first time doing this," she said of the festival.