Join us at The Foundry in East Cambridge from Saturday, February 15 to Saturday, February 22 for our third annual Foundry Festival! Immerse yourself in a week of free public programming and create connections with diverse communities.

All ages and skill levels are welcome to participate in as many activities as you are excited about. This is a great chance to engage the family over the February school break!

This year's festival theme is Resilience. Resilience to us is celebrating how our stories, cultures, and communities continue to thrive. It is not just the act of survival, but creating strong communities that take care of each other. Many of our communities have been consistently forced to practice resilience due to systemic oppression. This year we want to take the time to uplift the ways in which we band together to not only survive but to create moments together where we can truly live. We invite you to our weeklong festival that celebrates who we are, who we want to be, and a vision for a future where resiliency can be a word that is not only a response to hardship but the way we interact with the world around us. This year we welcome you to cook with us, create with us, dance with us, and continue to grow together.

Schedule of Events:

10:00 am - 12:00 pm: Improv Adventures for Families! - The Nova Comedy Collective - Drop-in program

Bring the whole family along as we dive into the imaginative world of improvisational theater! In this workshop, we'll explore all the ways improv allows our ideas to come to life. We'll be playing whimsical theatre games, meeting wacky characters, and acting out scenes - all without a script. In this Improv Adventures workshop, playing pretend is for all ages! This program will include a break halfway through, and is structured with accessibility in mind.

11:00 am - 12:30 pm: Cook with 5 Ingredients or Less (5I) - Session 1

Learn to cook delicious and fun dishes with simple and accessible 5 ingredients or less. This workshop will focus on seasonal foods. No prior cooking skills required~ just a willingness to have fun with food and others.

12:30 pm - 2:00 pm: Cook with 5 Ingredients or Less (5I) - Session 2

Learn to cook delicious and fun dishes with simple and accessible 5 ingredients or less. This workshop will focus on seasonal foods. No prior cooking skills required~ just a willingness to have fun with food and others.

11:00 am - 2:00 pm: If at first you don't succeed- you learn a lot - JOYweavers - Drop-in program

Come explore different STEAM challenges- some easy, some harder-all meant for participants to have fun and to problem solve.

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm: “Bead Therapy” - Expressive Arts Workshop - ZMakesBeads L.L.C.

Bead Therapy is an expressive arts workshop that teaches participants the basics of beaded jewelry making and the difference between semi-precious stones and precious stones. Over the years, bead therapy workshops have been a constant source of tranquility, creative expression, and exploration in a society that encourages the opposite. Many of the people who come to these workshops have and continue to rerun and have enjoyed it as a constant and third space to simply be present. Being present in one's creative expression is an act of resilience!

2:00 am - 4:00 pm: Going on a Snail Walk - Kate Estrop - Drop-in program

Did you know there are tiny wonders and creatures waiting for you to notice them right in your own neighborhood, even in the winter? The secret to noticing them is to slow down. In “Going on A Snail Walk,” I'll show you what I've seen from my own neighborhood and give you some tips on how to spot your own wonders. Then, weather permitting, we'll take a short walk to see what we can spot and come back together in the classroom to discuss and share.

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm: Unleash Your Inner Chess Champion - ChessMathLab - Drop-in program

Join ChessMathLab's free, fun-filled chess teaching event at the culture festival! Led by a chess National Master and top high school players, this two-hour interactive session is perfect for young beginners eager to explore the exciting world of chess. Adults are welcome to join the fun too! Whether you're a curious beginner or a seasoned player, stop by for some casual chess play and a great time. All chess sets will be provided, so just bring your enthusiasm!

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Design for Community: Building Resilient Experiences - Ciaran Crawley and Steph Orme

In this workshop you will be equipped to tackle problems in the community with empathy, and use design thinking to build resilient solutions. The workshop will open with a brief introduction to the concept of "resiliency," followed by break-out groups for an activity and discussion focused on how to utilize the principles such as empathy, inclusivity, and community ownership in design and research to empower the communities we build for. All materials will be provided.

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Name Your Street: Neighborhood Acrostic Poems - Heather Nelson - Drop-in program

The streets we live on have a name, but not the name we, its inhabitants give it! Using the names of the streets we live on as scaffolding, we will write acrostic poems that describe and enliven our street names with our own experiences and history there. Long-term residents of a neighborhood may write two street name poems to reflect their neighborhood's changes over time. Newer residents may pair their current street name with a street they used to live on to highlight continuity and difference in neighborhoods and experiences.

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm: Welcome Blanket Craft Along - karen Krolak

Do you think that the world could use a little more warmth and comfort these days? Are you a crafter who would like to improvise with us as we collaborate on some Welcome Blankets? Whether you like to knit, crochet, embroider, sew, upcycle, etc, we will have supplies and space to start joining forces on Welcome Blankets to give to newcomers to our country. In this two-hour session, we may not create a whole blanket but karen Krolak will take all the sections home or to other Make Alongs to finish. Feel free to bring in something that you have started or any fun supplies you would like to add to the mix. Welcome Blanket is a platform for engagement that transforms the abstract concept of immigration into a tangible crowd-sourced artistic action. We ask you to use your head, heart, hands, and histories to craft the country we wish to see. Handcraft makers are invited to make Welcome Blankets. They include notecards with stories important to their families about immigration/migration/relocation to create symbolic and practical gifts of welcome for new refugees coming to the United States. These gifts are collected, cataloged, and displayed at art institutions and exhibitions. During these exhibits, we create spaces to amplify the message of welcome by hosting craft circles, performances, discussions, forums, and legal assistance for immigrants.

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm: Contemporary Explorations - Jennifer Kuhnberg

Do you love contemporary dance and introspective movement that lights up your creativity? Come learn soulful and expansive choreography set to "Every Age" by Jacob Banks that explores the Foundry Festival theme of resilience. This class is for adults and will be taught at an intermediate level, but dancers of all experience levels are invited to join!