There may not be pool parties in McCarren Park this summer but the Open Space Alliance has a bevy of activities planned for the remainder of the season, including a Saturday arts and crafts program, Fun in the Sun.
Every Saturday in August from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., scores of children have been stopping by the green OSA tent on the north side of McCarren Park (Nassau Avenue and Lorimer Street) to engage in arts activities.Led by OSA’s Julia Morrow and Lia Zuvilivia, a North Brooklyn artist and parent, as well as the North Brooklyn Public Arts Coalition and the Market at McCarren, the program provides an assortment of old bags, hangers, and non-biodegradable materials that would otherwise be discarded for children and their parents to put together into art projects.
“It’s about using recycled goods and reducing waste and have crafts projects around that.We thought it would be a fun aspect to have in McCarren Park,” said Morrow.
Morrow has been getting the word out through posts on childrens’ blogs in the neighborhood and having the local greenmarket and Artists and Fleas vendors funnel parents over to their activity station.
“Families just in the park crossing by get excited when they see crafts,” said Morrow.“The parents are doing crafts too which is really cute.”
In addition to the arts program, OSA has several other projects in the works including a late-summer benefit with the American Ballet Theater group, as well asa free children’s tennis clinic, urban Park Rangers walks, and pay-what-you-wish Yoga in McCarren Park.For more information about OSA events, visit www.openspacealliancenb.org/
