Aqualumina Workshop: Illuminated Aquatic Wearables

Join us in the Aqualumina Workshop for a special art-making experience with Em Rea, a Philadelphia-based artist who transforms trash into improvisational sculptures.

Em will lead community members in creating one-of-a-kind illuminated aquatic hats, masks, and wearables using scavenged and post-consumer materials for this year’s Aqualumina Festival on May 18, a riverside lantern festival involving music, dance, and inspiring lighting along the river’s edge celebrating water as a vulnerable resource, necessity, bellwether, and mirror of the sky.

Em will host workshop time in the Aqualumina Workshop from 3 to 5 on Fridays and noon to 4 PM on Saturdays and Sundays from April 12 to May 17. The cost is $10, which offsets material costs. Walk-ups are welcome if the workshops are not filled.

Aqualumina Workshop

The Aqualumina Workshop is a makerspace dedicated to the creation of costumes and props for the Aqualumina Festival on May 18. A revolving cast of creatives will host in constructing parasol jellyfish lanterns, glow-in-the-dark fish puppets, illuminated cardboard boats, coral reef hats, paper mache lanterns, and a roving river surrey to accompany the festivities in May. These constructions will accrete in the gallery like barnacles until May 18 when they will slide off together with the folks who made them to the festivities. The maker’s space will also feature a photo booth where participants may capture themselves in their aquatic finery.

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Em Rea is a Philadelphia-based artist who plays with trash to make improvisational sculptures, two-sided paintings, and assemblages. They love to connect with others to think about the environmental impact of materials, where they come from, and where they go after they are “used up.” Their art explores relationships they see and feel between collapse, connection, care, and disposability.

Em has been an artist in residence at RAIR Philly, This Will Take Time Residency, The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, and the MassMOCA Studios. They earned their MFA and MSW from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021.