Beat The Blues: Make a mini mandolin at Rogers Historical Museum

"The biggest challenge was probably making sure that each rubber band we wanted to use for the mandolin would be a different size and that each one made a different sound," Ashley Sayers says of Saturday's Kids Craft Corner project at the Rogers Historical Museum. (Courtesy Photo / Ashley Sayers)
"The biggest challenge was probably making sure that each rubber band we wanted to use for the mandolin would be a different size and that each one made a different sound," Ashley Sayers says of Saturday's Kids Craft Corner project at the Rogers Historical Museum. (Courtesy Photo / Ashley Sayers)

How do you beat the January doldrums? Staff at the Rogers Historical Museum thought a little music might help -- and wouldn't it be even better if young patrons made the musical instruments?

"This is our inaugural Kids Craft Corner event," says Ashley Sayers, education assistant at the museum and the creative mind behind Saturday's "Make a Mini Mandolin." "We originally were thinking that it would be good to have a small pop-up event in January that tied in with our current temporary exhibit 'Diversity of Music' because January tends to be a month when not a lot of events are held.

FAQ

Kids Craft Corner:

Make a Mini Mandolin

WHEN — 1-4 p.m. Saturday

WHERE — Rogers Historical Museum, 322 S. Second St. in Rogers

COST — Free

INFO — 621-1154, rogershistoricalmus…

"After we had been talking about what this particular event would entail, Serena Barnett, the director of the museum, approached the education staff about making this a monthly event rather than just a one-time pop-up event, and each one would connect to our local history," Sayers goes on. "We had already been discussing having more regularly occurring events for the community, and this seemed like a perfect tie-in with that.

"We had brainstormed a bunch of different musical instruments that we could make with the kids who attended the event," she adds, "and we settled on the mini mandolin idea because a range of ages can make one, it is a little different than your standard DIY musical instrument, and it has connections with our local history."

For Sayers, it was an opportunity to study the history of the mandolin -- a small stringed musical instrument in the lute family which evolved in the 18th century in Italy and Germany from the 16th-century mandora, according to Encyclopedia Britannica -- and how it ties into Northwest Arkansas music.

"There at one time had been a female orchestra in Northwest Arkansas in which several members played on the mandolin, including a famous Rogers resident," Sayers reveals. "To find out more about her, families are encouraged to attend the event!"

The actual hands-on portion of the Kids Corner was a little more mundane.

"The biggest challenge was probably making sure that each rubber band we wanted to use for the mandolin would be a different size and that each one made a different sound, so when the kids do play music on them there are different notes that they can play and the song will have some variety to it," she says.

"I think there are a lot of things that kids will enjoy about it. They will have the opportunity to decorate their mandolin, and kids always seem to have a good time decorating things," she enthuses. "I think they will like the colors of the rubber bands that we are using and the sounds that each one makes when you pluck them. And hopefully they will enjoy playing music on them too!"

Kids Craft Corner will happen on the third Saturday of every month, Sayers says, and is intended for children of all ages. It's a drop-in event, so no registration is necessary.

NAN What's Up on 01/17/2020

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