EASTHAMPTON — A festival dedicated to highlighting the importance of nature and our environment through art is set to occur during the week of Earth Day.

“The Earth & Fire Arts Fest,” spearheaded by arts nonprofit World & Eye, will explore the danger to and care of our planet through myriad workshops and performances from April 19 to 23 at CitySpace in Old Town Hall on 43 Main St.

According to Jean Minuchin, an artist, educator and program developer as well as the director of World and Eye, the event will feature workshops throughout the week from different professional artists who each have a different angle on arts in the environment.

The celebration culminates on the weekend of April 22 and 23 with two evenings of exhibits, networking with environmental groups about climate change action, concerts and final performances of storytelling, puppetry, dance, music and political satire.

“It’s a mixture of the arts and creativity and the environmental sustainability movements,” Minuchin said, of the festival. “It’s a combination of those two worlds.”

Most of the performances are for more mature audiences like teens and adults but the festival weekend also includes the “World We Love” puppet parade for families, which is spearheaded by Beth Fairservis — a local performance artist, workshop leader and giant puppet and parade creator.

The “World We Love” Parade — which starts at CitySpace and traverses to Nashawannuck Pond — will occur on April 23 from 1 to 2 p.m. and will feature a giant puppet called “the Great Green Being” leading the charge.

“We’ll sing some songs and honor the creatures and honor the water, and just make a rallying cry to get everyone to be more active and awakened about taking care of our local environment,” said Fairservis, who also does work with Climate Action Now — the local climate justice organization.
Coinciding with the parade is a workshop conducted by Fairservis during the morning of the parade from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. called the “World We Love-Activist Art Workshop.”

During this period, attendees will make “shields of protection” for local creatures by cutting and pasting a collage of images, as well as drawing pictures on these shields.

“We’re going to have conversations about how we can embody our connections to the natural world right here,” Fairservis said.

Fairservis will also be presenting her own piece called “The Paper Mache Protest: A Mother’s Call to Action in the Face of Climate Change” on April 22 at 7:30 p.m., which tells a personal story about how she became awakened by climate change around 20 years ago.

“It integrates, what are the deeper motivations that get people to get out there and advocate,” said Fairservis. “And for me, that’s birthing my son and realizing, ‘I want my son’s future to be more secure.’”

As a result, Fairservis’ piece explores that concept as well as the importance of puppetry in her life and how that has played a role in her activism. “I really want to call people to take their art outside and get it out in the street,” Fairservis said. “Get things done with the art, because it’s an urgent situation we’re in.”

The fest features four workshops and begins on April 19 with a “Boxes of Sorrows” in the Old Town Hall’s Blue Room by local spiritual director, retreat leader, artist and writer Susannah Crolius from 6 to 8:30 p.m. In this workshop, Crolius will guide people through a meditative and creative process of tending grief over species and habitat losses by making a “Box of Sorrows” through prayer and ritual. People’s artwork in this workshop will be exhibited during the weekend from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Minuchin will then spearhead “Recycled Puppets and the Throwaway World” in the Blue Room on April 20 from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

“It’s a mixture of creating puppets out of recycled materials and telling stories through visual art,” Minuchin said. “As well as looking at what is our relationship to things.”

According to Minuchin, the workshop explores the concept of what is really precious to us and what, in our lives, we consider to be junk. The hope is for people to tell a story with their puppets relating to waste and the idea of consumerism by reflecting on those topics. The exhibition of these puppets will also occur on April 22 and 23 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

A workshop will also occur on April 22 from 2 to 6 p.m. called “Fables for a New World” spearheaded by Dr. Terry Jenoure, a musician, visual artist and educator from the Bronx who has performed all over the world. During this workshop, people will be able to collaborate on an improvisational piece through writing, visual images, sound and movement. “It’s something that gets born in the moment,” Minuchin said, of the workshop.

The collaborative group will then perform this original piece that they create on the spot at 7:30 p.m. on April 22. No art experience is required for the workshop, according to Minuchin.

Performances, meanwhile, will include Minuchin’s full performance of the “American Stink Bug” piece on April 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m., which is created in the style of Bouffon — a French style of performance work that has a main focus on the art of mockery.

In this piece, Minuchin plays a bug trying to influence humanity before they destroy the planet. The piece includes puppetry, clown, storytelling, video projection and participation from the audience.

Other performances include “The Climate Healing Chorus” on both April 22 and 23 as well as a piece called “Elegy,” which is set for 7:30 p.m. on April 23. The latter is written and directed by Rebecca Shrader in collaboration with K Adler and includes “excerpts from an evolving fairytale made up of dance and pantomime sequences in which a blue bird sings a song of morning and a red fox watches.”

The Climate Healing Chorus, meanwhile, is led by Kate O’Connor and Rico Spence and includes a free community chorus that sings climate healing, earth celebrating and environmental justice songs.
When asked about the expansiveness of this festival, Minuchin said it is really important to incorporate a range of emotions when it comes to climate change activism and environmental justice.

“I think combining arts with social causes is really important because the arts by their nature are transformative,” Minuchin said. “It can reach deeper places in people, and I’ve seen that happen.”
Since last speaking with Reminder Publishing in October for her “Bite Sized Blends” mini-performance festival, Minuchin said World and Eye has emerged throughout the Pioneer Valley as things begin to ramp back up for the art community.

Readers can learn more about the upcoming festival and World and Eye in general by visiting the World and Eye website: http://www.worldandeye.com/earth-and-fire-arts-fest.html. People can visit the festival tab and see descriptions of the events as well as prices for each.