Join Us for Our Capital Campaign Launch

On Saturday, October 17th, at 4 PM the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center is launching its capital campaign! We're announcing the final, public phase of our fundraising for our permanent home, and we're almost there--with $300,000 left to raise out of a budget of $1,300,000. We're celebrating with music and refreshments and with the presentation of our newest completed boats: the Red Pirogue and the River Ferry. The Red Pirogue was modelled after one of three boats to take the Lewis and Clark Expedition up the Missouri. The River Ferry, a one person rope ferry, was constructed using a 19th Century ferry design provided by historic boatwright Butch Bouvier. Both boats will be part of the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center's historic boat display.

Lewis & Clark President Anne Hemenway and Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Board Member Sally Thomas will be making opening remarks at Saturday's event.

September and October Schedule

We've set the schedule for the rest of the season--by popular demand.

September 5/6: We're going to make animal medallions on wood, and do some new Nail Art designs. (See photos below for some of our earlier designs.)

September 12/13: Discover Geocaching (the Lewis and Clark geocache will be in place); and take part in a Journalling Workshop

September 19/20: Mapping for Young Discoverers; Pottery: Hand Painted Beads and Bowls

September 26/27 Our Explorer's Club will offer Map and Compass workshops. We'll also have beading with our new animal beads.

October 3/4 We'll have Nail Art, Beading, and a Science Table. Bring something from home to examine under the microscope or find something at the Center...

October 10/11 Make paper-mache figurines, and do printmaking with leaves to celebrate the fall season

October 17/18 Get your Halloween costumes ready with paper and paper mache mask-making. Make a paper mache pumpkin, or set out with the Explorer's Club team for a lesson in geocaching.

October 24/25 Paper mask-making, Pottery, and Leaf Art.

October 31 Our last day of the season! Make a Halloween Mask, and do a spooky Artwork. Black, yellow, and orange beading, and Batty Nail Art.

BamaWorks Camp

August's Camp Explore is now underway at the Center, generously funded by BamaWorks, the charitable foundation of the Dave Matthews Band. The children have been doing art projects, exploring the outdoors, and getting their feet wet in the river. We've been seeing tadpoles and frogs, dragonflies--and honking v's of geese. Today they got a wonderful introduction to nature journaling and to the nature observation games of Joseph Cornell thanks to local educator Eileen Merritt, whom the Center met through a Chesapeake Bay Foundation workshop. More on all this later! We have many more activities planned, including making drums out of recycled materials.

August Schedule

We have wonderful activities this August for enjoying the last days of summer. We have hikes, and fun with our new microscopes and nature viewing tools...
August 1/2 Animal Painting: Paint an animal on paper or on small wooden medallions you make yourself; Rock Hunting: Look at rocks underneath the microscope then search for your own rocks on the park trails
August 8/9 It’s a Day for the Birds! Learn about all your neighborhood birds at our Ornithology Display. Books, feathers, and squeezable toys… Observe the bluebirds and barn swallows that live near the Lewis and Clark Keelboat Barn and make your own paper feathers and bird masks.
August 15/16 Compass Workshop: Join a Compassing Scavenger Hunt that teaches you how to use a compass. Following the series of clues to discover a secret hiding place. Pottery: Make your own coil pot to take home.
August 22/23 Beading and a Demonstration in Geocaching for Kids
August 29/30 Art in Action: Make Artist Trading Cards; Science Station: Learn the Tools of Mapmaking

Artist Trading Cards

Here are some of the beautiful Artist Trading Cards made at the Center this past weekend: salmon, deer, and keelboat.

Our July Schedule

We're having several new activities in July, as you'll see in our schedule below. For the Fourth, we'll feature an art project of red, white and blue. The next weekend, we'll make artist trading cards, where any type of paint, pencil, marker, and any glitter can be chosen--the only rule is that the card has to be 2-1/2 by 3-1/2.

July 4 and 5: At the Art in Action station: Come make Fireworks Transfer Prints by painting a sheet of plexiglass with your favorite red, white and blue colors. Then use a roller on a piece of paper to make your own work of art. Carpentry Corner: Help the Center make Bird Feeders for its resident birds.

July 11 and 12: Art in Action: Join the Artist Trading Card craze. Paint or draw your own trading cards to trade with your friends or to collect yourself. Carpentry Corner: Make a Nail Art sculpture and learn to sand wood and drive nails.

July 18 and 19: Carpentry Corner: Help the Center make Bird Feeders for its resident birds. Science Station: Learn to Test Samples of Water.

July 25 and 26: Art in Action: Artist Trading Cards. Paint or draw your own trading cards to trade with your friends or to collect yourself. Science Station: Rock Hunt. Hike our trails and find four different kinds of rocks.

Carpentry Art

Here's are some examples of what we'll be working on this weekend and the next: string and nail art. We got the idea from The Kids' Building Workshop, a carpentry book filled with fun projects. A visitor last weekend said that the only piece of art he ever made was string and nail art and that he still has his piece... Little did he know he'd be a resource for our art at the Center!