Adults and children alike benefit from the programming available from the Highlands Center for Natural History here in Prescott, and offerings for both are immediately available in the coming new year.
Among other events in the packed agenda the Center has between January and May, children can enroll in their nature club for 6 to 12 year olds, the Nature Nuts. Every other Saturday from January 19th through April 12th the Center’s Education Director, Fiona Reid, leads the Nature Nuts members off into the 80-acres of forest adjacent to the James Learning Center and together they spend 4 hours exploring, playing, investigating, discovering, creating artworks, and spending time journaling down by Lynx Creek. This kind of natural study of nature trains the eye and mind of these youngsters to see and understand the wonders of the native flora and fauna of this area and in that way, Reid says, “. . . they establish a kind of living sympathy with everything around them. It’s wonderful for them and bodes well for the future of our environment. ” For younger children aged 3 to 5, known as Knee-High Naturalists, another staff member, Lisa Packard, conducts less strenuous but just as wonder-full explorations into the natural world.
For adults the Center has several programs that may appeal to the artist or naturalist. In January the Center will host a series of four one-hour presentations entitled “The Bigger Picture” These free programs will be fun, interactive, and hands-on classes given by a Prescott College Masters student who will encourage the audience to think outside the box on their human relation to the natural world and how we all live within it. In February there are the traditional February natural history sessions, Nature Study 2008 Classes. For 6 mornings in February these classes cover a selection of topics given by professional instructors who have spent most of their lives outdoors in nature and who love to teach and share their enthusiasm for their subject. Reid says, “ . . if you are new to the area or simply want to know more about this beautiful place in which we all live and which supports not only us but an amazingly diverse native flora and fauna, then these classes are for you! They also provide the basis of knowledge we like our docents to have before they work with the school children on our site. It’s a great time to meet like-minded people, learn about the Central Arizona Highlands, become familiar with the Center and our mission and all the other upcoming programs we offer.”
Also in February local artist Diane Iverson who has recently illustrated Dr. Sylvester Allred’s book, Rascal, The Tassel-Eared Squirrel for the Grand Canyon Association, offers Drawing from Nature in Colored Pencil. These two hour classes take place one afternoon per week throughout February, and are for beginner and intermediate students.
For more information on the above programs, call 928-776-9550.
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