Whistler Museum is excited to announce the return of Crafts in the Park for the summer of 2023! We will be continuing our collaboration with Whistler Public Library, who will help in both finding and presenting the stories. The craft theme for this year will be “A Journey Through Time” and each craft will highlight parts of Whistler’s natural and human history.
Crafts in the Park will run on Wednesday, from 11am-noon; no registration is required and drop-ins are welcome. The crafts are intended for children ages 6 and under, with an adult present; all craft supplies will be provided.
In addition, as the weeks progress, we will post a recap of the activity and craft from the previous week, alongside some historical context.
Week One: July 5th.
This week was all about dinosaurs! We read some dinosaur stories before proceeding to make fossils and draw what made them. There were lots of creative fossil designs, from leaves, to shells, to dinosaur footprints. Speaking of dinosaurs, here are some of the ones drawn up from the imagination of those who attended.
Week Two: July 12:
The focus for Crafts in the Park this week was on culture and daily life. We specifically focused around fishing, since for the early part of Whistler’s history, the biggest attraction in the region was Rainbow Lodge, which many visitors came to take part in fishing on the shores of Alta Lake. We read some stories about fishing before proceeding to make fish out of felt-cut outs, alongside using paper plates create an ocean or lake-scene for the fish. The highlight of this craft was the magnet fishing poles, which could be used to catch and reel in the fish.
Next week, we’ll be moving on to crafts that draw attention to the buildings of Whistler’s past.
Week Three: July 19:
For the third week of Crafts in the park the focus was on buildings, more specifically, buildings that have played an important role in Whistler’s history. In line with our craft last week, the activity for this week was to create fishing lodges out of popsicle sticks.
There lots of creative interpretations and decisions made by those who participated, looking forward to next week were the theme will be focused around transportation in Whistler’s past.
Week Four: July 26
The theme this week was transportation.The stories provided to us from the library were all focused on trans, largely because of important role that trains played to the community of Alta Lake in the early 20th century. Our craft today consisted of creating trains out of paper tubes, attaching the cow-catcher, smoke-stake and wheels to the body after the paint had dried. There were lots of creative interpretations and creations.
While most projects got taken home, there are still a couple that have been left with the museum, if you left yours behind, feel free to drop by later this week to pick them up. Next week we’ll be thinking about inventions that have shaped Whistler’s history.
Week 5: August 2nd:
The theme for this week focused on Inventions, in particular, inventions that have made big changes to Whistler’s history. The kids painted paper plates as a background, often with scenes involving mountains and forest, before adding a gondala (modern or older), or a chairlift to the scene.
Week 6: August 9:
This week was a bit different from the previous weeks. Due to the weather, we held our stories and crafts inside the museum, it was a bit cramped, but everyone who came had a great time. The craft for today was cutting out clip-art of skiers from templates after colouring them, and then adding popsicle sticks to their feet for skis and toothpicks to their hands for ski-poles.
Join us next week for the last day of crafts in the park!
Week 7: August 16:
Due to smoky conditions and the increasingly hot weather, Crafts in the park was held inside the museum for this week. The theme for today was mountains, after reading some mountain themed stories, the craft was creating some mountains.
This was also the last week of Crafts in the Park for the Summer of 2023, come back next year for more crafts in the park!