The Art and Literacy Festival at Virginia Avenue Park was held Saturday April 28, and included a variety of booths, books and activities for youth and families to engage in.
Throughout the park, children and adults crafted bookmarks and journals, played literacy-based games like loteria, and sat together for story time. In addition to games and crafts, the main stage include live performances.
Claudia Chirino, the project coordinator for Champions f
or Change, a Los Angeles County-wide initiative aimed at the “prevention of obesity,” had an interactive display of mock food and beverages. She stated that the goal was to teach people “how to read a nutrition label.” While there are sugars in sweets, she clarified that sports drinks and soda “also contain sugar” and reading a nutrition label can reveal exactly how much.
Students from Santa Monica College’s Early Education Department also participated in festival, leading several craft stations and activity tables. Professor Cathi Miller explained that the students had developed the projects for the event. “There is a clay station, book making, cornstarch goop, beading, and a reading area,” Miller explained. According to Miller this is the third year that the department has participated in the festival. 
At the main stage, music literacy was taught by Joseph Peck who led a Caribbean Drum circle while he played a compilation of original and cover songs. He provided shakers, and conducted a group of more than 30 people from his steel drums.
For more information, visit: www.smgov.net/vapark.
