Workshops for Spring & Mother’s Day
In honor of springtime and Mother’s Day, the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) is offering two different weekend one-day workshops full of exciting hands-on projects for children.
Celebrate Spring will be held on Sunday, May 1, at the Oldest House, 16 Sunset Hill, from 10 am to 12 Noon, $5 per child. Crafting Mother’s Day Gifts will take place on Saturday, May 7, in the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street, from 1 to 4 pm, and this workshop is free with Museum admission. During both workshops, children must be accompanied by an adult companion.
The Celebrate Spring workshop will focus on hands-on activities inspired by nature. “We’ll be looking at the island’s historic landscape in a way that is new and exciting. Children will create artwork using natural materials, fostering a greater understanding of the natural world around them,” said Melissa Kershaw, the NHA’s outreach and public programs coordinator.
Participants will have the opportunity to put a new twist on classic spring traditions when they make daffodil pinwheels, create prints using sunlight, and make a variation of the traditional May basket. The Oldest House kitchen garden will also be open so visitors can search out some of the first spring blooms. Guests are encouraged to wear their festive daffodil-weekend clothing.
“Indeed, it is probable that no other community in America the size of Nantucket has ever given the country so many extraordinary women,” wrote William Oliver Stevens in Nantucket: The Far-Away Island. In honor of Mother’s Day, on Saturday, May 7, from 1 to 4 pm in the Whaling Museum, guests will have the opportunity to create, design, and craft a special gift not only for their moms, but for any beloved woman in their lives. “Inspired by items in the NHA collections, children can sit for silhouettes, create with shells, roll Quilled paper, and enjoy new variations on vintage tokens of love,” said Kershaw. Both programs are designed to combine adventure, discovery, creation, and education.
