OIRM to Host Annual Spring Family Day To-Go

Old Independence Regional Museum will be hosting its annual Spring Family Day in a new format: Spring Family Day To-Go!  The museum invites families to drive by the facility at 9th& Vine Streets on Saturday, May 2 from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. to collect craft kits to take home.

While the museum is currently closed according to state mandates, we still want to offer families the opportunity to spend time together working on crafts,” stated Humanities Educator Terri Crawford.  In keeping with tradition, OIRM will supply free materials for a variety of crafts.  However, instead of working these crafts with staff and volunteers on site, visitors can collect their craft kits to work together at home.

The museum kits will include supplies for several different crafts including paper cardinals, clothespin butterflies, napkin dolls, clay imprints, and bee hotels. These crafts are not necessarily historical crafts, but collecting the materials wasreminiscent of earlier eras when citizens were quarantined, such as during the Spanish Flu, or when they had to use what materials they had on hand, like during the Great Depression.  Museum staff has collected on-hand materials for children to use for making handmade items that celebrate spring.

Craft kits to-go will be given free one each per child while supplies last. The museum is located at 380 S. 9th Street, between Boswell and Vine in Batesville, AR.

For more information, call (870) 793-2121 or email oirm.educator@gmail.com. Information can also be found at www.oirm.org or on Facebook and Instagram.

Old Independence serves a 12-county area:  Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White, and Woodruff.  Parts of these present-day counties comprised the original Independence County in 1820s Arkansas territory.

This humanities program is made possible by local support from Independence County and the City of Batesville, as well as by Challenge Grant Endowment funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities.  Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.