Overview
Bring the family to the MMFA’s Flimp Festival—a day dedicated to stirring your creative spirit and igniting your imagination! This annual event is perfect for young families and children. Admission is free and there is always something new and exciting just around the corner.
Outdoors, visitors will enjoy many art activities for all ages along with family-friendly grooves performed live by MEOWAcademy and regional musicians Calliope Pettis and Wanda Wesolowski. This year, in partnership with MGMWERX, visitors will have the opportunity to explore an augmented reality world in the Sculpture Garden’s tree grove featuring virtual flimps, or flower imps, inspired by Geneva Mercer’s Flimp Fountain in the MMFA’s permanent collection. The outdoor fun continues with dazzling glitter temporary tattoos applied by the local art educators and artists from Abrakadoodle. Additionally, families can find inspiration from our community; local artists Tara Cady Sartorius (mixed-media), Tori Nicole Arts (painter), and Queen Opulence (jewelry maker) will each be engaging with visitors while demonstrating their artistic styles, with works available for purchase in the Museum Shop.
Inside the building, we are excited to announce the reopening of the Museum’s interactive gallery, ArtWorks, closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Visitors will enjoy family-friendly activities, including the MMFA’s ongoing series, Baby+Me, a program designed for parents and toddlers ages ten months to three years old that includes story time and art making.
The first 100 families to enter the Garden will receive a colorful bag with art-making materials, complete with coloring books and crayons to make more art at home.
Art Activities
Marvelous Me Portraits
Using pencils, coloring materials, and collage, participants of all ages can create unique portraits perfect for framing for the wall or hanging on the fridge.
Fairy Wands
Participants of all ages are invited to create a fairy wand using pipe cleaners and beads for fun and whimsical play. These wands can also transform into bubble wands for extra fairy fun.
Flower Flags
Designed for ages seven and up, participants will pound fresh flowers releasing pigments onto canvas, to create unique and beautiful flower-print flags.
Paper Beads
Participants of all ages will create beads from rolling patterned paper, then string them together to create a unique necklace, armband, or bracelet.
Docent’s Choice
The MMFA docents are thrilled to bring, for the first time, a docent’s choice art activity to Flimp. This surprise activity will be appropriate for all ages and promises to be full of whimsy, creativity, and fun.
Demonstrating Artists
Tara Cady Sartorius is an artist and art educator interested in connecting people through design, materials, words, and images. A founding member of the Flimp Festival back in 1990, Tara believes that the pursuit of knowledge should be motivated by curiosity, which resonates throughout Flimp! At this year’s festival, Tara will lead an activity as Flimp’s featured artist, guiding participants through creating their own floral head garlands from fresh flowers and other whimsical materials.
Tori Nicole Arts creates artwork that embodies balance and is often inspired by Native American and African American cultures and human consciousness. For Flimp, she will use vibrant washes of oil paints to develop a visually soft, yet strikingly realistic, nature painting.
Jeweler Queen Opulence makes bold, unique metal and gemstone jewelry—each piece wound and formed by hand, which she will demonstrate at Flimp for visitors. Every necklace, ring, bracelet, or pair of earrings has its own feel, shape, and meaning.
Performing Musicians
MEOWAcademy, located in Montgomery, Alabama, and serving the River Region, is a place for youth to discover the joy of music and learn new skills through piano, guitar, voice, and drums lessons.
Calliope Pettis is a classically-trained vocalist, self-taught multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, performer, and teaching artist. She believes everyone has the ability to create and enjoys empowering people of all ages to use their unique voices to participate together.
Wanda Wesolowski has spent the last decade in Huntsville focused on writing and performing original songs that speak on sensitive matters of the heart. Sharing insights from adolescence with unapologetic sincerity, Wesolowski aims to connect her audience, promising beautifully-crafted melodies listeners can’t help but sing along to.
Partners
Local Partners
MGMWERX
Abrakadoodle
AL Partnership for Children
Autism Society of Alabama
Parks & Recreation Department of the City of Montgomery
Performances by
Calliope Pettis + Wanda Wesolowski
MEOWAcademy
Vendors
Verde
That’s My Dog
Frios
Sponsors
Flimp Sponsors
Support for the Flimp Festival is provided by lead sponsor HMMA, sponsor MAX Credit Union, and co-sponsors Mr. and Mrs. Bruce S. Reid.
Annual Event Sponsors
Annual support for events at the MMFA is provided by lead sponsors Lamar and MGMWERX, with additional support from sponsors Gene and Ray Ingram and Margaret and Jimmy Lowder, and co-sponsors Confero, Mary Lil Owens and Bill Little, Renasant Bank, and Synovus Bank.