Reel Expressions Youth Film Festival in Rhinebeck and Rosendale
I delight in the raw energy, earnestness and real appeal that I experience while watching movies by youth filmmakers. The Children’s Media Project’s Reel Expressions Youth Film Festival selected 17 films submitted from around the US, and Poughkeepsie Day School Chinese exchange student Haixu Lui won the Grand Prize for his film The Masks. You can watch The Masks and the rest of the featured shorts this week at screenings in Rhinebeck and in Rosendale.
The Reel Expressions Youth Film Festival takes place on Saturday, March 16 at 12:30 p.m. at Upstate Films, located at 6415 Montgomery Street/Route 9 in Rhinebeck, and on Tuesday, March 19 at 7:15 p.m. at the Rosendale Theatre, located at 408 Main Street in Rosendale. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for students, available online through the Children’s Media Project website. For more information, call (845) 485-4480 or visit www.childrensmediaproject.org.
Y2Kids Careers day at Stewart Airport
Conversations with kids often gravitate eventually toward future hopes and dreams, but how can we expose youth to careers with which they aren’t familiar? Stop over at the Y2Kids Careers event this Tuesday, March 19 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the US Army Second Aviation Detachment hanger at Stewart International Airport. Y2Kids Careers “is a day of hands-on, interactive career exploration activities geared for middle-school-aged children, their parents and teachers.”
Stewart Airport is located at 1005 First Street in New Windsor. Admission is free, but preregistration is required. For more information, call (845) 291-0300, extension 10318, or visit www.ouboces.org.
Make a leprechaun trap for St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day means leprechaun traps, and setting leprechaun traps can be tricky, messy business. Have you tried it yet? The object is to create a trap that captures a leprechaun, forcing him to give you his pot of gold. To hold onto the gold, one must keep an eye on the leprechaun at all times, without even blinking, or both the leprechaun and the gold disappear.
Our family does all kinds of strategizing to try to catch the leprechaun, and every year we get a little closer, using recycled materials and lures such as trick coins or tiny snacks. The leprechaun gets very angry about being caught and often destroys the trap in a crazed fit of rage, making an escape in the process. Sometimes we see trails of gold dust that look like glitter: signs of the leprechaun’s struggle and eventual getaway.
Online images of leprechaun traps abound, with plenty of ideas to inspire your own resident leprechaun design. Enjoy your leprechaun quest, and good luck!
Iyoya Children’s Art Show at Vassar’s Lehman Loeb
I had heard about the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College over the years, and I finally stopped by with my daughter for the first time recently. We both loved it. This is such an incredible and manageable way to experience art as a family: It’s close by; it houses a massive collection of artists that I thought I had to travel to New York City to view; and it’s free. Artists include Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock – and that’s just for starters.
The size of the Center is so manageable, with a wide variety of works. I recommend a visit for everyone interested in art, as well as in giving their child or grandchild a chance to see some amazing pieces.
This week is actually a great time to stop by Vassar, because the 28th annual Iyoya Children’s Art Show, “A Celebration of Children’s Art,” takes place at the Palmer Gallery on the Vassar campus from March 17 to 22. More than 200 works by area students from nursery to elementary to middle grades will be displayed, and the gallery is free and open to the public.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center and the Palmer Gallery are located on the Vassar College campus at 124 Raymond Avenue in Poughkeepsie. For more information, call (845) 437-5237 or visit https://fllac.vassar.edu. To learn more about the children’s art show, visit https://arts.vassar.edu.
Erica Chase-Salerno lives, loves, laughs and sets leprechaun traps in New Paltz with her husband Mike and their two children: the inspirations behind hudsonvalleyparents.com. She can be reached at kidsalmanac@ulsterpublishing.com.
Join the family! 
