CB to You Mobile Art Lab: Siloam Springs

Energizing Community Through Art!

Siloam Springs, the CB to You Mobile Art Lab is returning to your neighborhood!

Join us this November at the Siloam Springs Public Library for three days of creativity and conversation focused on energizing communities through art. Each day of the visit will feature different activities and artists, as well as pop-up performances throughout the evening and weekend.

From artmaking and Storycircles to artist talks and live studio demonstrations, this traveling celebration of creativity promises to bring a little bit of inspired fun to everyone. Each stop will culminate in a free outdoor concert and community art showcase.

Join us in celebrating your hometown by creating art, stories, and memories together!

Free, no ticket required.

Thursday, November 11

Activities from 3 to 6 PM

Artist of the Day: Trinity Kai and MacKenzie Turner

Trinity and MacKenzie will be at the library from 3 – 6 PM and will be introducing guests to a cyanotype activity using light-sensitive prepared paper and community-based objects, as well as a project carving air-dry clay. Following the art activities, the artists will lead an discussion inspired by their own experiences with community, belonging, and resilience.

Trinity creates work using her own personal narrative and examines systems of discrimination that exist within society. She creates through self-portraiture, written language, and materiality to share her experiences and bring viewers into conversations that can be reflective and transformational.

MacKenzie is an artist who works primarily in ceramics. Their work speaks of the people, personal stories, and natural beauty remembered from growing up in small towns in Arkansas and Missouri.

An extra pop-up performance will be given by artist Craig Colorusso! Craig will perform his work Ladybug Cathedral at the library from 4 – 6 PM! Using a bowed guitar, Craig’s Ladybug Cathedral is a long, slow, and deliberate performance that invites listeners to just listen and let the sound wash over them. Craig is a sound-based artist whose explorative work extends beyond sound and utilizes light and sculpture. In the past five years, Colorusso has combined his interests in the permanent and semi-permanent works: Sound Swings, Moon Pod, Covered Bridge ONE, and The Tunnel.

Friday, November 12

Activities from 3 to 6 PM

Artists of the Day: Tay Butler

Tay will be at the library from 3 – 6 PM and will be introducing guests to a collage-based art activity that involves magazines and cardstock.  Following the art activity, Tay will lead a discussion inspired by his own experiences with community, belonging, and resilience.

Tay works in photography, collage/assemblage, video, music, and sound exhibitions and installations. He is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work layers both the present-day and archival Black experience, as well as the histories, realities, and theories that influence those experiences.

Saturday, November 13

Activities from 11 – 2:30 PM

Artist of the Day: Ziba Rajabi

On Saturday, we have a day full of artists and performances! Kicking off the fun-filled day will be our artist-of-the-day, Ziba Rajabi! Ziba will be at the library from 11 AM to 2:30 PM, and will be introducing guests to a printmaking-influenced activity that involves a collagraph demonstration using cardboard, acrylic paint, and foam sheets. Following the art activity, Ziba will lead an artist discussion inspired by her own experiences with community, belonging, and resilience.

Ziba is an Iranian artist whose primary practice is focused on painting, drawing, and fiber-based installation. Her work focuses on merging past memories of her native land, Tehran, and her current life here in Arkansas through abstract forms.

An extra pop-up performance by Papa Rap and the drumline circle will be held from 11 AM to 12 PM. Papa Rap will be performing alongside Bongo Luigi Vazquez and together they will teach everyone about different drum rhythms and cultures through reading stories, hands-on activities, singing and dancing!

Papa Rap, also known as Al Lopez, is a Puerto Rican musician who connects communities through music-making and performances. The goal of his music is to encourage understanding and togetherness through educational and fun lyricism!

After the artist hours, storytelling events will be led by guest poets and storytellers Justine Ryan and Brandy Ponce from Poetic Justice: Speak Your Jewel! and the Open Mouth Reading Series.

Justine Ryan is a local actor, singer, writer, and world traveler. She just finished performing as Mrs. Phelps in Theatre Squared’s Matilda The Musical. When she is not performing locally with LatinX Theatre Project or other groups in the Ozark area, she is assisting people of the BIPOC community on how to be a global citizen through her podcast Study Abroad Like A “G” The Podcast.

Poetic Justice: Speak Your Jewel! is sponsored by the local nonprofit organization Light House Solutions. Speak your Jewel is a diverse group of Social Artists within the NWA area. They come from all different walks of life to spark courage and participation within the community. Their artists are known for activating their jewels through dance, poetry, singing, painting and acting to deliver the power of their stories. Their mission is to help people believe humanity and divinity are one within us and their mantra is: You must never suffocate the genius that lies within you.

Brandy Ponce writes poetry about flowers, dust, girlhood, and the balancing act of Mexican-American identity. Having studied journalism for some time, she is most interested in writing creative nonfiction. Her poetry about immigration and family separation won her second place in the Thea Foundation Creative Writing Scholarship Competition. She directed the Anne Kittrell Art Gallery at the University of Arkansas, programmed visual and performing arts events for the university, and now works as an administrator doing arts and cultural programming for the Teen Action Support Center. Brandy writes poetry to understand, and be understood.

Open Mouth Reading Series is a community-based literary organization located in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They have partnered with local organizations to bring engaging and creative events, programming, experiences, exchanges, content, and dialogues to Northwest Arkansas. OM hosts monthly readings and writing workshops as well as many other writing and engagement opportunities for poets and community members. Their featured poets will share readings of their own work while guiding a storytelling circle, encouraging guests through activity prompts and storytelling to participate in writing and sharing stories about their experiences in their own communities.

For the finale of the tour, CB to You invites you to a live music gathering at 1 PM by 412 West, presented in collaboration with Music Moves.

Music Moves is committed to educating and engaging the community by making high-quality performances of Black music accessible to everyone. The nonprofit partners with local organizations to bring live performances to the community throughout the year.

Don’t forget to pick up a free art kit to take home with you!

The CB to You Mobile Art Lab is a traveling pop-up art experience energizing the power of community through art. Featuring regional artists from across Northwest Arkansas, the art lab will be visiting local libraries and festivals around the region to bring artmaking, music, storytelling, and more. Find out more about the program, see a full schedule of stops, and get to know our guest artists here!

The CB to You Mobile Art Lab is presented in partnership with Ziba Rijabi, Markeith Woods, Lakisha Harper Bradley, Trinity Kai, Tay Butler, and Junli Song. Pop-up performances will be performed by Papa Rap’s the fun love drum line, Craig Colorusso’s Lady Bug Cathedral Sessions, and Music Moves. Story sharing events are presented with Ozark Poets and Writers Collective, Open Mouth Reading Series, and Poetic Justice: Speak Your Jewel!