Nature-inspired song and art

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded Rappahannock’s Kid Pan Alley a $10,000 grant for a collaborative songwriting project with Shenandoah National Park, the Shenandoah Park Trust and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

This project aims to bring children to the park to experience its beauty, majesty and importance to our natural and national history.

After visiting the park, the children will write songs with Kid Pan Alley songwriters inspired by their experience and they will perform those songs in concerts for the school and community. Finally, they will work with teaching artists from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to create their own original artwork inspired by the park and the songs.

Kid Pan Alley songwriters will work with more than 1,500 elementary school children in eight schools in gateway communities to the park over the next year, including Rappahannock County Elementary School this fall.

“One of the goals is to inspire local children to experience the park first hand so that they may become the next generation of visitors, supporters and stewards of this public land,” said the National Park Service’s Tim Taglauer. “Yet many children in the gateway communities have never had opportunities to visit the park. That includes children from Luray Elementary, the school closest to the Park headquarters.”

Students from Luray Elementary visited the park last week and are writing songs this week with Kid Pan Alley’s help. There’s a free public concert of their songs at 7 p.m. next Tuesday (June 7) at the school.

“The children get to experience and learn about nature and the park, one of the most beautiful places on earth, and then, they create their own beauty through song and visual art. What could be better?” said Paul Reisler, Kid Pan Alley’s founder and artistic director.