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Arts & Entertainment

Second Saturday Festival: Trinkets, Tales and Tomatoes

Launching in July 2012, Wyck’s Second Saturday Festivals will present the best of Wyck’s programming in history, horticulture, urban agriculture, food, and conservation.  Over the course of four afternoons, Wyck’s entire site—the house, the collections, the rose garden, and the farm—will open up for the community to explore a particular theme.  Activities will include workshops, talks, demonstrations, special tours, live music, and art, for adults as well as children.  The best part?  All of this is free of charge and open to the general public.

The first festival will be held on Saturday, July 14, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at 6026 Germantown Avenue (at Walnut Lane).  The theme will be Trinkets, Tales and Tomatoes: Things We Treasure, exploring our motivations to collect objects and tell stories, and revealing how personal collections and storytelling can impact history.  History isn’t necessarily determined by others; the stories and objects (even seeds!) that you or I treasure today could become valuable to people in the future.  That’s just what happened in the Wistar-Haines family of Wyck over three centuries.  But first you must consider:  What’s important to you?  What’s your story?  Activities will include:

  • Storytelling workshops* led by noted historian Sandra Mackenzie Lloyd (*please bring a meaningful object or photo from home)
  • Outdoor dance performances by the Blind Faith Project Dance Company, headed by Daniela Galdi of Northern Liberties’ Trullo Studio
  • First Person Arts’ innovative Story Market, which asks “How much is a story worth?”
  • Special tours of Wyck House’s 3rd floor collections storage, revealing historical household objects, furniture pieces, and curiosities rarely seen by the public
  • Crafts for kids/families, including Abolitionist Bracelets with Nancy Shell of the Johnson House, Wyck Silhouettes, Family Trees, Trinket Boxes, and Treasure Scavenger Hunts
  • Tours of the Wyck Home Farm, a working farm filled with heirloom plants; and the Wyck Rose Garden, the oldest rose garden in the country and planted with several old roses that had been thought lost until they were discovered growing at Wyck

Live music throughout the day will be provided by Riverside Bluegrass Band—back by popular demand!  Food vendors will include Geechee Girl Rice Café and Little Jimmie’s Bakery, both of Mount Airy, and Germantown’s Nile Café

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