EASTON, Pa. (WLVT) - In this week's edition of PBS39's Virtual Things To Do roundup, you're invited to contribute to a local online art collection and to try a free science class.
CALLING ALL ARTISTS
The New Hope Arts Center is inviting art lovers to check out its collection, which is now posted on its website. The digital exhibition features the work of artists from around the region and beyond.
To keep the collection fresh, amateur artists are invited to contribute work that reflects on the current global crisis. To participate, you must become a member of the New Hope Arts Center.
Click here to view the collection and to learn how submit a piece.
SCIENCE LESSONS & BUTTERFLY'S
The Nurture Nature Center (NNC) in Easton is offering free science videos on its Facebook page.
''We talk about everything from radioactivity to astronomy,'' NNC executive director Rachel Hogan Carr told PBS39. ''We’re also doing educational webinars and bringing in guest speakers. On Wednesday, we’ll have Lafayette professor and historian Ben Cohen talking about his new book, ‘’Pure Adulteration: Cheating on Nature in the Age of Manufactured Food,’’ and that will be a presentation and interactive discussion.''
Over the last few weeks, NNC put together a community project about monarch butterfly's for its "Perspectives: Art on Environment" program. This year's program theme is hibernation and migration.
''We’ve had people from around our community respond to a call to cut out 3,000 paper monarch butterflies that will be assembled into a magnificent sculpture here once we reopen,'' said Hogan Carr of the Monarch Project.
''We even have the Children's Home of Easton helping out,'' NNC art director Keri Maxfield added. ''People are finding that contributing to a community project right now is particularly satisfying."
Volunteers are still needed to cut out monarch butterflies. Email kmaxfield@nurturenature.org with your name and address (please title the email “Monarch Roost”) for a packet of 24 printed monarchs and a return envelope. All pieces are due by June 15th and particpants will have their names added to a plaque at the final display at the Nurture Nature Center.
In addition, participants have a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Book & Puppet Company.
MUSIC BREAK
This week's segment also features a video sent in by the Music Master Mentor Program at Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center. The youth program was led by Grammy-winning bassist and Bethlehem resident Bakithi Kumalo and keyboardist Will Smith.
The program, which ran from February through April, went virtual in March. An in-person recital is planned for a later date.
''These students are unbelievable,'' Kumalo told PBS39. ''They have such great talent and are easy to work with. My job is just to help them navigate music. I’m really happy about these kids. They are the future. We have to help them to be the best, to be better than us.''
Watch the performance at 6:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on Friday, May 15th at the conclusion of PBS39 News Tonight on PBS39. You can also view the clip in the video player below.