Boxtopia Circus at Skeleton Park

Over the past seven years I've been making these ridiculously large cardboard installations. It all started when Milé and I were backpacking around Europe and we came across a street fair in Lucerne, Switzerland. There were a bunch of large boxes set out in the street, and as I watched the kids run around them, I was like... *YES!* 

I brought the idea back to Toronto and Clay & Paper Theatre, where building these installations became a part of the annual Day of Delight Festival, a tradition which the festival continues.

2015: Boxtopia Circus comes to Skeleton Park, Kingston

Three years ago I started making this "creative cardboard kingdom for kids" at Skeleton Park Arts Festival in Kingston. With each project, Boxtopia has grown increasingly elaborate, but this year really took the cake, mostly because I collaborated with three other fantastic artists: Chrissy Poitras, Nella Casson and Kevin Merritt, with the assistance of some great volunteers, Laura Miller and Holly Gilmour.

We started with a theme: the circus! My crackerjack crew had lots of brilliant ideas to bring to the table, and kids and adults just ate it up. There was a midway with several games, and of course a concession which sold cardboard popcorn. Everything was going so smoothly...

Chrissy merchandises the cardboard popcorn.

Until a competitor opened right next door offering cardboard ice cream in three flavours, all for just one cent each!

There was a fortune teller, which provided some hilarious eavesdropping opportunities...

"You will live in a cardboard box... much like this one..."

Kevin and Holly made all these awesome characters which were dotted around Boxtopia and the rest of the park...

...and they made cardboard hats and costumes with some of the kids...

... including this sweet little robot...

Nell and Laura ran the craft zone, where kids could make shakers or animal hats...

And my proudest creation was a "photo booth." You would enter the booth and draw the curtain. Someone would sit across from you and draw your picture... it could be a friend, stranger or sibling, a kid or an adult.

After a few minutes of processing, your 'photo' would come out the slot...

Presto! Your custom-made Skeleton Park souvenir.

There was a "colouring zone" where kids could could express themselves...

... including leaving us funny messages:

Occasionally Milé would fly by on his new jetpack...

... and the ladies on the trapeze were always swinging overhead.

It was a fun and busy place to be...

... with moments of pure magic happening all around us.

My heartiest thanks to the fabulous crew that brought this corrugated wonderland to Skeleton Park:

L to R: Laura Miller, Chrissy Poitras, Krista Dalby, Holly Gilmour, Kevin Merritt, Nella Casson

I had so much fun with all of you... when can we do it again?

Additional thanks goes out to my mom, Felix, Nora and Kate for their contributions.

Cardboardia Rises Again

(Note: if you are looking for the *amazing* "Made in Cardboardia" from Russia, click HERE.)

This past Saturday I found myself headed to Kingston shortly after dawn with my husband Milé and a van full of cardboard. I had a mission:  to build a creative kingdom for kids, namely Cardboardia at Skeleton Park Arts Festival.

I've done Cardboardia a bunch of times: at Clay & Paper Theatre's Day of Delight, in our Art Barn for a very cool toddler's birthday, and at Skeleton Park last year. You can tell that I've got a cardboard project coming up when I start skulking around back alleys on recycling day.

The key to a successful Cardboardia, for me, is prepping lots of stuff in advance, and having some spectacular volunteers willing to show up early in the morning to help set it all up.

Cecilia and Elaine conjuring the very popular bat cave

Rogier and Rachael building the city

Although I got a bit fancy putting googly eyes on bats and bees, much of my advance painting used simple black outlines. I brought along tons of art supplies, and the whole cardboard village turned into one giant 3D colouring book.

Inside the bat cave

New this year, I also created an art gallery, so kids could sit and make whatever they wanted and hang it up.

This group of boys hung out for hours, building boats which became cars which became trains. They even built themselves a train station and made themselves drivers' licenses.

But the quote of the day goes to some anonymous little boy who asked Milé in all sincerity, "Do you know where the Queen of Cardboardia is?"

Here I am... with a cute little creeper behind me!

Speaking of Milé, he was doing some entertaining of his own as a "short order cook" on stilts.

I was really touched that Cardboardia was immortalized on this year's festival merch (illustration by Kevin Merritt).

Now for the challenge of re-training my brain to stop ogling piles of recycling... it's hard to resist a good pile of cardboard when all you see are the possibilities!

Cardboardia comes to Skeleton Park

(Note: if you are looking for the *amazing* "Made in Cardboardia" from Russia, click HERE.)

I had the absolute *BEST* day yesterday. I led an installation called Cardboardia at the Skeleton Park Arts Festival in Kingston, Ontario. I showed up at the park with a van full of cardboard at 8 AM, and over the next few hours, crews of worker bees buzzed in and out, helping build this creative cardboard kingdom for kids.

I made myself a cardboard crown and was the self-professed Queen of Cardboardia. Let me show you around my kingdom!

It was a rather busy place, with lots of running, crawling and peeking.

If you were lucky, someone would put on a puppet show for you.

Or you could catch a performance by the Barefoot Players right outside our gates.

 There was some rocking out on cardboard instruments...

And my citizens were encouraged to draw on the walls!

Many took trips in our time machine: 

Although probably the most popular site was our barn, 

complete with a menagerie of cardboard animals and a real straw bale!

Over the course of the day, hundreds of kids enjoyed the wonder of Cardboardia.

 But the best compliment of all...

Was when they started building their own cardboard creations.

We were just one small part of an amazing festival; although I didn't get to see much of it, I snuck away for a few minutes to watch the Lemon Bucket Orchestra, playing on the teeter-totter...

Eventually the rains came and we packed up Cardboardia for the recycling crew to take away. My sister Caitlin and I sat under umbrellas watching The Gertrudes rock out, and were delighted by children dancing barefoot and joyful in the mud... until the deluge got the better of the electrical system, and the festival came to an early close. But the mood was high - everyone had had a brilliant day.

Krista and Caitlin: Queen and Princess of Cardboardia Skeleton Park

A huge thanks to Skeleton Park Music Festival for inviting us to play, and to the many helpers who brought Cardboardia to the people!

Pecha Kucha

A few weeks ago, I made a presentation about Small Pond Arts at Kingston Arts Council's Pecha Kucha. Pecha Kucha Night originated in Tokyo, Japan, as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images X 20 seconds. Artists show 20 of their images, for 20 seconds each. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

It was an evening of presentations devoted to theatre, and I felt a little like the odd one out as the other 6 presenters hailed from more traditional theatre backgrounds; but everyone was very friendly and responsive to my presentation. It was a lot of fun and the fast pace really kept things snappy. A tip of my hat to all the artists featured in my presentation, including those I (doh!) didn't name: Trevor who puppeteered Punch, and musicians néGar, Kori, Shawn, Graydon and Lara.

You can watch my presentation below.

BONUS DRINKING GAME: Take a drink every time I say "Um." You will be loaded by the halfway mark.