My Own Two Hands celebrates the arts

For the past five years My Own Two Hands has celebrated how one individual can change their community for the better by using their own skills in a positive way. The two-day event set for Friday-Saturday, April 11-12 is a community celebration of the arts - performing, visual and written word.

"Reflection" is the My Own Two Hands theme for 2008. Participating artists based their donated art work on that theme - in all of its various meanings.

After a citywide show of visual and performing arts at the Art Stroll & Chili Feed on Friday, April 11, the donated works will be auctioned off the next evening for the benefit of the Sisters Americana Project and arts education in the Sisters public schools and community.

The art stroll features a treasure hunt. The stroller who finds the "Duck of Reflection Decoy" created of glass beads by Wendy Vernon will win a $100 gift basket from The Hen's Tooth. The treasure hunter who turns up the Pleiades Princess Hand Mirror by Cate O'Hagan will win a gift basket from Sisters Movie House.

The Saturday night Auction Party held at Ponderosa Forge and Ironworks brings together the art, the artists and the community in an evening of celebration featuring both silent and live auctions.

The event is the major annual fund-raiser for the Sisters Americana Project. A cross-curricular program in Sisters schools, the Sisters Americana Project is about exploring Americana folk music and arts and using them to illuminate the history, life and culture that we all share.

The project provides teaching staff, guest artist workshop sessions, instruments and recording and live performance opportunities for the students. The Sisters Folk Festival's My Own Two Hands event is the primary funding source for this nationally-acclaimed and successful program.

Learning to play the guitar, writing original songs, recording, producing events and hands-on experience in traditional American folk arts and crafts are the facets of the educational curriculum that gives students a voice for social change and vehicles for self-expression.

For more information visit http://www.sistersfolkfestival.org or call 549-4979.