Celebrate Earth Day at Kent's Earthworks

Everybody's welcome at Kent's multimedia celebration marking the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. The free event, planned by Kent's Arts Commission and 4Culture Site Specific begins at 7 p.m. Thursday and promises to reinforce the city's commitment to being the greenest of green in our environmentally aware region. The program includes art, music, dance and audience participation, all in the beautiful surroundings of the Herbert Bayer Earthworks.

The Earthworks itself is an environmentally sensitive marvel. It's a public park whose geometric and organic sculpted spaces are built into the alluvial delta at the mouth of Mill Creek Canyon. But it's not just a pretty place; it's also a dam that holds stormwater and an internationally recognized environmental artwork.

The many activities planned for the evening will reinforce the concept of ecological sensitivity. You might want to begin your visit with a stop at the art station designed and directed by Kristin Tollefson, visual artist and educator. She's going to help you make leaf boats, you know ... the kind you made as a kid. She'll have ivy, laurel and other spring leaves to use as sails on a base of corrugated cardboard, and every boat will be provided with a tea candle for a dusk launching.

Music will be provided by the Paul Rucker quintet, a group that incorporates the sounds of horns, percussion, strings and flute. The quintet's performances are improvised — composed on the spot and inspired by the land formations and the people in attendance.

In addition to serving as background entertainment, the music will accompany acornDance, a company led by Aiko Kinoshita. The program begins near the band shell, but then audience members will be invited to join in, to dance their way through the Earthworks to the edge of the site's double-ring pond. There the tea candles will be lit and the leaf boats launched as floating luminarias (except for those that proud children might wish to keep as a memento of the evening).

And crowning this whole affair will be Mandy Greer's sinuous soft sculpture, a river of crocheted yarns in various shades of blue installed in the trees above Mill Creek. Called "Mater Matrix Mother and Medium," this 200-foot-long work was in place last summer at Camp Long.

The Herbert Bayer Earthworks fuses art and infrastructure. Kent's Arts Council sees it as just the place to raise environmental awareness through a celebration of the arts and our natural world.

Nancy Worssam: nworssam@earthlink.net