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EVENTS | FEBRUARY 16, 2025

Thanks to all who joined us for our first Creative Curiosity Commons (C3) pop-up event!

What is a Creative Curiosity Commons event?

We weren’t quite sure what would come out of our first event aiming to create an environment that sparked our community to share ideas, explore interests and embrace spontaneous creativity…a place to connect with our neighbors.

Thanks to all who joined us, we did all that and more. Whether people wanted to chew on a relevant curiosity in a one-on-one conversation, be part of a ‘round table’ on a shared interest topic, a mother-son chess match, a seat by the fire, or to get creative elbow-to-elbow with neighbors, it seemed like there was something for everyone who came!

We had great feedback that this event felt like we were all family, with so much inter-generational collaboration and conversations. That’s the big dream of the Creative Curiosity Co-op – to hold space for our community to discover common interests, expand knowledge together, and maybe light the spark that turns into individuals uniting to further their vision for the island around any number of topics.

Keep scrolling to read about the topics we discussed and see photos of the many activities. 

 

What came out of this event?

Coffee Shop Meets Irish Pub

This event created a “Commons” environment for our community to gather…like a cafe designed to foster spontaneous interactions, creativity, and curiosity. 

We dimmed the lights at the Community Center and set up soft lighting around the room with two discussion tables, a health & wellness info table, smaller tables around the stage for music lovers, and a brightly lit art nook with collage supplies. Next door, in the kitchen, we stocked hot tea, set up for a kids’ baking activity, and put out games, puzzles and a chess board.

After a brief welcome, participants joined the discussions or activities of their choice, wandering between them to explore all the stations. The event finished with a rousing music session with our island kids leading us in singing the Anderson Island song they had written at camp, followed by a 15-minute reflection on what surprised and/or delighted us about the experiences we shared.

Attendees expressed delight at the easy, engaging social setting, offering opportunities to explore shared interests, meet new neighbors, and wile away a rainy afternoon. 

Want more info for future C3 events or to volunteer to help? Email your name, phone number and topics/interest to info@curiositycoop.com

DISCUSSION: Local Food Movement

The Local Food Movement table had a huge array of conversations about growing and sharing food in our community. 

Want more info for future conversations? Email your name, phone number and topics/interest to food@curiositycoop.com

Prepare to be blown away by some of the topics suggested for further discussion!

Educational topics:
  • Pruning fruit trees/vines
  • Benefits of growing your own food
  • Preserving food: pickling, drying, etc
  • Make soda pop from dandelions
  • Kids cooking farm grown food
  • Cultivating mushrooms
  • Foraging for mushrooms
  • Growing your own produce and ways to preserve, store, and cook your fruits of labor
  • How to flavor food without fat / learn about spices
  • Plant-based protein sources other than beans with a focus on a vegan diet
  • Sugar alternatives
  • Grow herbs, alfalfa sprouts, mung beans, etc,
  • Making yogurt
  • How to compost
  • Cultivating sea vegetables
  • Farmers/growers resource packet (i.e. best seed varietals, local experts, etc)
  • Shellfish culture
  • Heritage apples
  • Solar ovens
  • Maple syrup from native maple trees
Shared services / work experiences / events:
  • Teams to going around pruning orchards
  • Large-scale applesauce production
  • Cooking and baking exchange
  • Help planning a home garden
  • Food waste/composting co-op on the island for drop off and pick up
  • Create and island Community Shared Agricultural (CSA)
  • A version of “share-cropping” where those with land provide space for those without who want to grow fresh food
  • Island Farmer’s Market at the concerts (individuals selling and sharing)
  • Fresh food donation program for islanders facing food insecurity
  • Grape harvesting help
  • Seed propagation and sharing
  • Shared grape pruning
  • Farm to table breakfast, lunch, dinner potluck
  • Brand/Logo for “Anderson Grown”
  • Local co-op with members who sell their own produce with no regulations
  • Exchange food for help in the orchard
  • Run food carts at island locations and events
  • Monthly ethnic culinary events

DISCUSSION: Mushroom Festival

The Mushroom Festival brainstorming uncovered a much deeper interest in regular activities together to:

  • explore identification
  • foraging
  • cultivation
  • cooking/preparation
  • medicinal uses
  • other uses (like dying textiles)
  • art perspectives like how to take good pictures,
  • what could we learn from experts in the field
  • what resources we could share

So rather tham focus on a festival, we will first rally the fun-gi & gals to have a conversation about what we want as a mushroom community. The first meeting will be Thursday, March 27th at 7pm at the Archival Building Library. We’ll see if it becomes a monthly event! 

Want more info for future conversations? Email your name, phone number and topics/interest to shrooms@curiositycoop.com

HEALTH & WELLNESS: Sunday Sports!

After a break during the depths of winter, SUNDAY SPORTS returns on MARCH 2nd at the RUSS CAMMON PLAY FIELD!

With a goal of providing a time and space for the community to simply get outside and play, community members and parents facilitate a casual, all ages afternoon of sports.

A simple format will have some organized scrimmages in soccer and basketball, as well as lots of free space to play.

Aren’t ready to get on the field? No worries! Come and help facilitate, be a referee/timekeeper, or drink tea on the sideline and root for the underdogs.

SUNDAYS 1-3pm
RUSS CAMMON PLAY FIELD

ARTS: Monday Music

Inspired by seeing more levels of music participation, Monday Music is adding a group class at the American Legion Community Center on Mondays at 5pm. We will tackle one song and get comfortable with it before the jam session starts at 6 and the set list moves much more quickly.

This is in addition to the 6pm Pubpop Jam session and the 7pm Traditional Irish music jam session.

Monday nights are YOUR chance to dip your toes in the water and join our community of musicians. All levels welcome!

Photos from the Event

And It Begins

As the time arrived, folks found themselves in a cozy oasis of curiosity.

Shared Art Space

We invited people to bring their own art projects or join us in creating gratitude collages.

Creators

It was a really fun multi-generational art space. For the collages, folks could just show up, look through magazines and leverage the provided art supplies to make spontaneous art of their own.

Collages Created

Zoom in to appreciate the detail in just some of the collages made at this event!!

Making Music

Island musicians offered some Irish pub music as our backdrop and explored more music opportunities available to curious islanders.

Kids’ Baking

Mr. Ted led a baking session where kiddos learned how to expand measurements to make a cookie recipe serve more people and guided their efforts to learn baking skills.

Local Food Movement Discussion

The Local Food Movement table had related and diverse conversations growing and sharing food in our community and are already planning a follow-up event to dive deeper into those ideas.

Mushroom Festival Brainstorming

The Mushroom Festival brainstorming uncovered a much deeper interest in regular activities together to explore identification, foraging, cultivation, cooking/preparation, medicinal uses, other uses (like dying textiles), art perspectives like how to take good pictures, or what could we learn from experts in the field…what resources could we share.

Health & Wellness Offerings

There was a table with signup sheets for more info on island health and wellness offerings.

Ending with our island song

Last, but certainly not least, we ended with our island kids leading the group in singing the Anderson Island song that they wrote at camp last summer. It’s an absurdly catchy tune that leaves you humming it for days.