By Madina Toure
The Voelker Orth Museum in Flushing is offering families a mixture of the arts, gardening and tea through its brand-new Tuesday afternoon series this summer.
The series, called Garden Creativi-TEA, which kicks off July 14, consists of five sessions in which individuals can work on a variety of art projects using everything from soft oil clay to pine cones to flowers and vegetables.
The series will run every Tuesday in the backyard garden of the museum, located at 149-19 38th Ave., from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The sessions include forming creatures with soft oil clay, nature printing, creating a bubble wand or special jewelry, building a miniature fairy house and creating hanging artwork.
The inspiration for the tea theme of the series stems from the museum’s Victorian Garden, said museum educator Deena Bak, who noted that drinking tea was a popular activity during the Victorian era.
“We’re making art,” Bak said. “It’s out in the garden and we’re going to be enjoying iced tea, so I wanted to have all of those things wrapped into one.”
She said the sessions are casual, and individuals can stay for the full three hours or drop in for 10 minutes.
Bak, who studied studio art at Williams College in Massachusetts, said she wanted to bring more of her expertise to the museum, which focuses not only on history but on the arts as well.
She said the series’ goal is to attract people of all ages, but the activities do appeal to families with children and teenagers.
“We were interested in building our local audience and providing an engaging activity for people in the neighborhood, especially because school’s out and families might be looking for fun things to do,” Bak said.
She will be facilitating the program with the museum’s interns, some of whom are from the city’s youth employment program.
The series will conclude Aug. 11. Admission is $3 for an individual and $6 per family. On rainy days, the program will be held indoors.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
