Atlanta History Center's Annual Sheep to Shawl Festival on Saturday, April 13, 2013
Kick off your family's springtime adventures with a little time travel. As part of the Atlanta History Center’s new programming and interpretive Meet the Past initiative, the History Center announces the debut of a new daily visitor experience at Smith Family Farm. Through the introduction of first-person interpreters, demonstrations, hands-on activities, a new open house tour format, and the long-awaited return of animals to Smith Family Farm, this beloved History Center attraction has transitioned into an authentic 1860s working farm designed to showcase history in motion, seven days a week.
This change at the farm is just in time for the Atlanta History Center’s annual Sheep to Shawl Festival held on Saturday, April 13, 2013, 10:30 am – 4:30 pm.
The journey from sheep to shawl begins at Smith Family Farm, where you are transported to the 1860s to explore the lifestyle of a nineteenth-century Georgia farm. At the barnyard, learn the importance of shearing sheep’s wool each spring while you observe shearing demonstrations. Children receive a handful of wool as a keepsake before taking part in a variety of entertaining hands-on activities and demonstrations that illustrate the process of wool being washed, sorted, carded, spun, dyed, and woven into a shawl – literally, from sheep to shawl.
While at the farm, interact with a variety of costumed living history interpreters presenting authentic demonstrations of blacksmithing, pottery, candle dipping, woodworking, open-hearth cooking, and other crafts and chores. Listen to Southern folktales spun by Betty Ann Wylie. Explore the Smith farmhouse and discover the living quarters of the Smith family. Most important, don’t forget to stop by the barnyard for the petting zoo.
Steps away from the farm, stroll through the Atlanta History Center's Historic Quarry Garden to observe the beautiful springtime blooms and plant life in the state’s largest collection of native Georgia plants.
At the Mable Dorn Reeder Amphitheatre visitors enjoy live musical performances by Sourwood Honey. This duo performs traditional sounds of the south incorporating folk, American and old time with a rotating medley of banjo, ukulele, banjukuitar, washboard and guitar.
Special performances of Clay: Palm to Earth, the story of Dave Drake, brings history to life. Born enslaved in 1801, Drake – traditionally known as Dave the Potter – was taught to turn pots and learned to read and write, often signing much of his pottery and inscribing them with poems.
After the performance, step inside the museum to admire the work of Dave the Potter on display in the Atlanta History Center's Southern folk arts exhibition, Shaping Traditions.
While inside the museum, don’t miss the Atlanta History Center’s newest exhibition, Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: How the Word is Passed Down.
Sheep to Shawl is sponsored by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council and supported by the Poppy Garden Club.
This special program is included with the price of general Atlanta History Center admission; free to members.
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