Flood Plan

On this grey and dreary afternoon we met with Parks and Rec. staff at Como Park to study that location as our backup if Harriet Island is flooded on April 19. Although flooding for our event is looking highly unlikely, it's good to have Como Park as a backup just in case!

Deseos para el Cielo

Many thanks to Kimberly Johnson, Spanish teacher at Watershed High School, for translating our Spanish version of the Wishes for the Sky emailable flyer! Both English and Spanish versions of our PDF flyer can now be downloaded from our website. Click here for the English version. Click here for the Spanish version. These flyers are a great way to promote this event by emailing them to your friends or posting them at whatever places you happen to frequent!

Wish-Speaking Structure

Marcus, Kathleen, and I just met with Peter and Angie at Angie's studio in Minneapolis. Peter and Angie presented their design for a beautiful new structure where guests to the event will have the opportunity to read their kite-wish into a microphone so their voice can be mixed with other recorded voices and played back as a layered sound installation of wishing. Peter is working on the basic structure--which will be made from latticed pieces of thin bamboo--and Angie is working on the outside of the structure--thin fabric draped over the structure and over the tree that will be at the center of the structure.

A rough mock-up of the basic structure. The pieces of brown paper represent the lattice, the piece of bamboo represents the tree, the blue fabric represents the Mississippi River.

Plans for the new structure as well as photos of Angie's fabric design from last year's Promises to the Earth installation.

Angie describes how the fabric will be attached to the lattice to Marcus and Kathleen.

Misha's destruction of the wish-speaking structure.

Wishes for the Sky Fundraiser

Immediately following today's Ensemble session, we held the Wishes for the Sky fundraiser at the home of Tim and Julie Griffin. The Griffin's home--which they graciously opened to us for the fundraiser again this year--offers beautiful views of downtown Saint Paul and of Harriet Island across the Mississippi River. Here are a few photos from today's fundraiser:

Wishes Ensemble 3-29-09

For today's ensemble we focused on updates and areas where we need help from each other. As personal reminders, we opened by going around the circle and telling the group why we were here--why we chose to be a part of the Wishes team.

We then spent a couple hours going over the many updates/changes since our last meeting. We covered artistic, volunteer, financial, and field updates.

One key point that was discussed is that we still need over 100 volunteers for the day of the event. (Volunteers can sign up through our website: http://www.wishesforthesky.org/volunteer or by calling Lori Janey at 952-513-4384.)

As a break from all the seriousness, for the last half-hour we used a kite-winder to play the summer camp-esque game of throwing a ball of string to each other across a circle. Keeping ahold of the string each time it was thrown to us, we would toss it to a specific person that we would either like to ask help from or offer help to. In the end we had a beautiful web of kite string connecting all members of the Ensemble.

Updates on field layout.

Lynn's photograph of Marcus and myself and the kite-string web.

Bamboo Storage

This morning I helped Bob from Flannery Construction haul the bamboo for the House to Touch the Wind to Saint Paul. We picked up the bamboo from it's winter home in Chisago County and delivered it to a temporary storage space near Harriet Island. This is where it will stay until the morning of April 18th when we will construct the bamboo house. Early next week Peter and I will inspect the bamboo to see how much, if any, we need to order for Peter's/Angie's new structure. (See entry from March 6).

Children's Workshops at Barker Park Recreation Center

Dates and times:

April 1

10am-12pm & 1pm-3pm

(Up to 50 kids, 1st-6th grade)

April 7, 10, 14, 16

3:30pm-5:30pm

(Up to 25 kids, 1st-6th grade)

The first instructor will be Dave Herzig from the Minnesota Kite Society on April 1. He has a project that he has done with children many times in which they each make and "fly" a sled kite. The kites will be made from materials that correspond with Wishes for the Sky's goals for a waste-free event.

Ashley from Public Art Saint Paul and Kathleen will be working with the kids on April 7 and 10. One session will be focused on wishing, using storytelling as a taking off point.  Ashley and Kathleen will bring along Wishes for the Sky kites for each child to write a wish.  The other session will be focused on scrolls.  For this session, Ashley and Kathleen will bring along one of Shen Pei's scrolls from Wishes for the Sky and will guide the children in creating their own scrolls.

On April 14 Lynn Hoffman from Eureka Recycling will be doing an activity related to worm composting.

Aki will wrap up the residency on April 16 by working with children to make wind chimes--these chimes will be hung in the House to Touch the Wind.

Kathleen flies a Dave Herzig kite.

Wishmaking Pavilion

We welcome Jonathan, the new Wishes intern, to the Wishes for the Sky family. Jonathan will be working with Aki to design and prepare the Wishmaking Pavilion.

In the Wishmaking Pavilion, guests of the event will receive their kites from an elder. They can also read poetry on scrolls (poems in English that have been stylized to resemble Chinese characters) and view a display of past wish-kites.

Already hard at work, Aki and Jonathan cut down a pedestal for the Wishing Pavilion's incense burner (many thanks to the Minnesota Museum of American Art for the pedestal as well as other supplies donated to Wishes for the Sky):

Wishes Ensemble 3-8-09

For yesterday's extended Ensemble session we held a "paper rehearsal." Over the course of five hours, we thought through every aspect of the event.  We helped each other add to our to-do lists to assure that nothing is being overlooked.

Kathleen and Aki visualize the pavilion

Lead artist Marcus and volunteer coordinator Lori

Brad from Minnesota Kite Society, Ming-Jen from the Chinese-American Association of Minnesota, and Lynn from Eureka Recycling

Wishes sound sculpture

Today we met at Cupcake on University to discuss the design of a new structure for the Wishes for the Sky sound installation. Peter Kramer, the architect behind the House to Touch the Wind, is working on the basic structure and construction. Angie Vo, who did fabric design for last year's Promises to the Earth installation, is working on the fabric design for this installation as well.

Peter doodling ideas on a napkin at Cupcake.

House to Touch the Wind at Wishes 2008 - design by Peter Kramer

Promises to the Earth at Wishes 2008 - fabric design by Angie Vo