A celebration of a local artist’s legacy drew an estimated 300 children and parents to the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum for a day of painting, sculpting singing and dancing Sunday.
Professional artists shared their talents with the scores of young people who packed the museum for the fifth annual Nat Fast Children’s Arts Day, a free event celebrating the arts and the legacy of the late Nat Fast, who died in October 2013 at the age of 89 after decades of teaching and creating art on the Central Coast.
“Nat Fast was a true Renaissance man and an extraordinary artist and teacher who was a special friend to the Discovery Museum,” said Chris Slaughter, executive director of the Discovery Museum. “He was a champion of arts education for young people, and his legacy lives on at our annual Nat Fast Day.”
At this year’s event, children took cartoon design lessons with former Walt Disney Imagineering illustrator and designer Laura Thomas, created marble paintings with museum staff and tried their hands at watercolors with members of the Orcutt Children’s Arts Foundation.
Award-winning sculptor Laura Moll showed them how to turn clay into art, and mixed-media artist Beverly Johnson helped them create colorful Silly Putty.
But the fun went beyond visual arts, as the children and their parents listened children’s music by singer, actress and costume designer Jacqueline Edwards, put movement to music with Amie Richie from Amie’s Song Garden and took a beginning tap dance lesson from G’na Garcia, program assistant for the Discovery Museum.
The museum also gave away an original Nat Fast painting in a drawing for those who made a donation to the museum located at 705 S. McClelland St., where hands-on exhibits and weekly programs encourage children to explore the world around them.
For more information, visit smvdiscoverymuseum.org or call 928-8414.
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