NYC Free: Children’s Festival at NMAI

The Annual Children’s Festival at the National Museum of the American Indian is a two-day weekend event filled with arts and crafts activities, dance performances and more. All FREE, and all showcasing the traditions and ingenuity of Native peoples from North and South America.

The theme of this year’s Annual Children’s Festival is Celebrating imagiNATIONS!

Practice balancing techniques needed to master control of a traditional Yup’ik kayak from the Arctic; learn how to weave rope strong enough to create a bridge like one found in the Andes of Peru; discover the counting and numeric skills of the Mayans; and take part in a vast array of activities that embrace Native innovations throughout history.

Celebrating imagiNATIONS! is next Saturday and Sunday, May 19 & 20, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, at NMAI, at One Bowling Green, at the northern edge of Battery Park.

The National Museum of the American Indian is part of the Smithsonian. Admission is FREE year-round.

SEE ALSO

The NYCOTC list of FREE museum admission days and times

Here’s part what’s on the schedule:

Diker Pavilion for Native Arts and Cultures (First Floor)

Arctic:
Coming in from Alaska, Peter Lind (Alutiiq and Aleut) and Susan Lind (Alutiiq) discuss, demonstrate, and teach about snow visors and snow goggles.

• Families will have the opportunity to decorate their own snow visors and goggles.

Engineering:
Jesús Garcia, a cultural interpreter at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, will demonstrate the art and science of weaving horsehair and agave rope cordage.

• Visitors will learn various methods of tying rope.

Maya Math:
Vilma Ortiz-Sanchez and Pamela Woodis will teach Maya math using the principles taught in the imagiNATIONS Activity Center.

• Visitors will learn how to write their ages or birth dates, and then write them on special tote bags.

Hawaiian Kapa:
Learn about the Hawaiian art of Kapa, a traditional craft where pounded bark is used to make clothes and other materials.

• Everybody will have the chance to create their own Kapa stamping on their totes.

Rotunda (Second Floor)

Health and Nutrition:
Based on traditional dances, the Powwow Sweat dancers from Idaho are here to demonstrate how dance makes exercise fun.

Great Hall (Second Floor)

Make and take home a souvenir button and/or magnet of the 2018 Children’s Festival.

###

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and The Walt Disney Company.