When: Tuesday, October 22, 6-9pm
Where: Paxinosa Elementary School
1221 Northampton Street in Easton, PA.
An evening of free food, fun, entertainment, and learning is planned for 6 to 9 PM on Tuesday, 10/22 on the grounds of Paxinosa Elementary School.
The event will celebrate the recent installation of the sculpture “Love Motel for Insects: Anax Junius Variation” by biologist and artist Brandon Ballengée at Paxinosa Elementary.
The October 22 event will include:
Meet the Sculpture – Up close and personal view of the 15-foot tall “Love Motel for Insects: Anax Junius Variation” art work.
Get To Know Bugs – Glow in the dark insect activity in partnership with Easton’s Nurture Nature Center.
Free outdoor showing of the movie “A Bugs Life” (approximate start time 6:45 PM).
Free ice cream and popcorn (popcorn courtesy of the Easton Police Department).
This event is the result of a partnership between the Karl Stirner Arts Trail, Inc., Nurture Nature Center, and West Ward Community Initiative, with funding provided by the Lehigh Valley Engaged Humanities Consortium.
Until it was recently moved to Paxinosa Elementary, Ballengée’s “Love Motel for Insects: Anax Junius Variation” had been installed this summer near the 13th Street trailhead of the Karl Stirner Arts Trail where it served as a focal point of September’s “Bushkill Bug Symposium”.
The Symposium included a panel discussion with representatives of Trout Unlimited, Bushkill Stream Conservancy, and others on various aspects of entomology, Bushkill Creek history, and environmental stewardship; fly-tying, casting and seining demos; bug and macro-invertebrate collection; table displays by local and regional stream affiliated groups; and a “Bug & Burger BBQ” at the sculpture site where Brandon Ballengée lead a conversation about insects and stream health.
Love Motel for Insects: Anax Junius Variation is part of an ongoing series of public art installations intended to construct situations between humans and arthropods. The works use UV lights and enormous sculpted canvases to attract insects and create opportunities for public interactions with nocturnal arthropods, which are often not seen. At each location, the Love Motels become the backdrop for community events, much like what’s happening in Easton. Love Motels have been located in the forests of Costa Rica; on boats in Venice, Italy; in peat bogs in Lough Boora, Ireland; at isolated moors overlooking Loch Ness, Scotland; at bustling shopping malls in Delhi, India; outside Aztec ruins in Mexico; on forest mountainsides in South Korea; in bayous of Louisiana; and now along the banks of the Bushkill Creek in Easton.
For more information on the October 22 “Meet the Sculpture” and Movie Night, visit us at facebook.com/KarlStirnerArtsTrail.