Sunday is officially the first day of summer, and will be the longest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. To take advantage of the extended daylight hours, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is hosting its third annual Summer Solstice celebration in conjunction with Family Sunday, making a weekend of free family activities.
"We like to start the summer season with a celebration and really encourage the public ... to see the galleries extended outdoors," says Sara Segerlin, Crystal Bridges' senior museum educator for public programs. "We have very rich Ozark forest [on the grounds], and I think a lot of people forget about that. They get here and see the beautiful architecture, but that architecture really only becomes beautiful because it is integrated with this incredible landscape."
The solstice celebrations this year are all about getting museum guests outside and highlighting artwork that can be overlooked other times of the year. One such piece, the Skyspace installation, will be the focus of Saturday night's activities. The large-scale, naked-eye telescope changes the way viewers perceive the colors, light and depth of the sky above them. Also on Saturday night, an outdoor screening of the film "Koyaanisqatsi," which means "life out of balance," will encourage guests to question their perception of, and relationship with, the environment. After sunset, the Astronomical Society of Northwest Arkansas will host telescope stargazing.
"The whole event will be a very cosmic program," Segerlin says. "We try to provide opportunities for the public to interact with experimental, innovative and site-specific artwork, so we're really able to explore that in the summer months."
On the official day of the solstice, a "mass yoga session" on the North Lawn will welcome the change of the seasons with 108 sun salutations. Cindee Joslin of Yoga Story in Bentonville is facilitating the event and encourages the yoga community all across Northwest Arkansas to join the "meditation in motion."
"The sun salutations will link our bodies in breath, and we'll be meditating on peace and abundance for the whole world," Joslin says. Large group meditations to celebrate the solstice are popular worldwide. "The more people that are together, the greater the energy. And when there is a broad number of people who are like-minded sending the same energy out into the world, it creates a lot of strength," Joslin says.
Later on Sunday, families can see local and international musical acts performing along the trails during Trail Mix, part of the Artosphere Festival.
-- Jocelyn Murphy
NAN What's Up on 06/19/2015