Central American Cultures Focus of Annual Children’s Festival

In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, “Cerámica de los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed,” the National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center will host its annual Children’s Festival, focusing on the indigenous peoples and animal life of Central America. The festival is scheduled for May 2–3 from noon to 4:30 p.m. each day. Admission to the museum and participation in all activities are free.

Throughout the two-day event, songs and dances will be performed by indigenous groups from the community of Colotenango in the department of Huehuetenango in Guatemala. The celebrated Grupo Awal (Maya-Mam) will perform traditional Mayan dances to the accompaniment of marimba music played by GuateMarimba (Q’eqchi’ Maya and Ch’orti Maya). The Mayan region is one of seven distinct regions that “Cerámica de los Ancestros” takes into focus.

Many of the activities allow children to exercise their creativity in arts and crafts and play some games along the way. Visitors will also receive a copy of the exhibition’s Children’s Activity Reader, also available for free digitally, which contains many of the images used in the activities, including:

• Designing a jaguar mask
• Bracelet weaving and making buttons
• Decorating an animal pendant
• Playing animal bingo

“One of the really fun things about the objects in our new exhibition is the iconography of animals used in different ways throughout the early cultures of Central America,” said Shawn Termin (Lakota), the museum’s cultural arts manager. “The representations of animal life in the exhibition come in many forms—monkeys, jaguars, crocodiles—there’s a whole jungle. The programs team used this imagery to build activities that are not only educational, but exciting.”

The National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center is located at One Bowling Green in New York City, across from Battery Park. The museum is free and open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursdays until 8 p.m. Call (212) 514-3700 for general information and (212) 514-3888 for a recording about the museum’s public programs. By subway, the museum may be reached by the 1 to South Ferry, the 4 or 5 to Bowling Green or the R or W to Whitehall Street. The museum’s website is www.AmericanIndian.si.edu.

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SI-164-2015