Need some community service hours? Volunteer for Project Jericho activities at Family FunFest – we need YOUR help! Call 328-3869 for more information.

The Clark State Performing Arts Center will present Family FunFest 2008 on Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18 from Noon to 4 p.m. at the Center’s parking lot in downtown Springfield (300 South Fountain Avenue). Family FunFest is a free two-day festival for the entire family. The event will feature a community performance stage, activity tents, caricature artists, face painting and roaming artists including magicians, balloon artists, and a stilt walker/juggler. There will be inflatables such as a bungee run, a giant slide, an obstacle course and a crawl through, pony rides, a petting zoo, a lobby coloring contest, carriage rides, COSI on Wheels and the Columbus Zoo.

One of the highlights of this years’ FunFest is the Barbara D. Kuss Memorial Concert featuring The Piano Men, 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 at the Clark State Performing Arts Center, Kuss Auditorium. The concert is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. The Ohio Lyric Theatre Spring Concert will be held at 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 18 at the Clark State Performing Arts Center. This concert is also free, but tickets are required. To reserve seats for these concerts, call the Performing Arts Center Ticket Office at 937/328-3874.

Youth involved in Project Jericho will have an active role in this years’ FunFest. Exodus, the Hip Hop Dance Troup, will perform Saturday and Sunday on the community stage and the Bucket Band will perform Sunday on the community stage.

Project Jericho schedule on the Community Stage:

Project Jericho youth and families will also be leading a community mural project and taking family photos (photos cost $1.00 and all proceeds benefit Project Jericho).

Family FunFest is sponsored by The Carleton F. and Ruth Davidson Endowment, The Turner Foundation, Performing Arts Center Circle of Friends, Clark State Student Senate, Springfield Rotary Club, and Target. The Springfield News-Sun and ThinkTV are the 2008 media sponsors.

Join “Song of Myself,” Project Jericho’s 2008 Summer Arts Camp, for an awesome singer/songwriter week. The camp is June 23-29. Pick up an application at the Performing Arts Center or download one from the Contact Page to print out and send to the Performing Arts Center. Please call 328-8044 if you would like additional information on this year’s spectacular Summer Arts Camp!

Wednesdays in June from 11:30am-12:30pm in the lobby of the Performing Arts Center, there is a fun, FREE activity for children ages 4-10 (parents welcome!) followed by a FREE snack. Even though there is not cost, participants need to register by calling 328-7951. This event is sponsored by the Turner Foundation.

Over forty students from Clark, Hayward, Roosevelt and Schaefer Middle Schools have participated this spring in Project Jericho’s After School Arts Program (ASAP). This term the students are focusing on the theme of “Exploring Unity” as each school’s program strives to build unity through their work in the arts. Sharon Koster has led Clark Middle School students to learn how to play the recorder and use their voices to inspire others to become positive agents of change. Jeffrey Brunner and Susan Broidy have teamed up to work with Hayward and Roosevelt in the creation of mosaic benches that will be permanently installed in the gardens of the new high school. Jane Fritts has explored unity with Schaefer students through the creation of a collaborative painting that will be hung in the library of their middle school.

The work that the students are completing in twelve short weeks is amazing and will be showcased at our public performance and presentation Wednesday, May 14, from 5:00 to 6:00 pm in the Turner Studio at the Clark State Performing Arts Center. Please plan to join in this celebration of unity as many of our ASAP students prepare to enter the halls of Springfield City School’s new Springfield High School this fall.

Project Jericho’s Life Book program allows us to artistically address state standards requiring a Life Book for foster children in care more than six months. This program involves foster children and caseworkers in an artistic journey into self-discovery that results in a beautiful, tangible representation of the child’s life. During the intensive one-week camp, two artists incorporate creative writing, watercolor painting, and factual archiving in a process that connects the social worker to child, and the child to his/her history.