DESIRÉE DECOSTE

STAFF WRITER

DeRAIL Platform for Art and Architecture and The Department of Illumination collaborated on Sunday with fill Benson Park with cheers and laughter at an event entitled Join our Herd.

The gathering, was originally scheduled in the spring, had around 30 participants.

A workshop to dress your bike and yourself up as some sort of cardboard creature started the event.

HERD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE There was plenty of family fun Sunday at the Join our Herd event at Benson Park. (Desirée Decoste/Gazette Staff)

“Thank you all so much for jumping into this wacky project, I really appreciate you taking the leap with us to join our herd,” said Krista Dalby, Artistic Director from The Department of Illumination, to participants. “This project was actually suppose to take place in the spring but was cancelled due to covid, so were definitely not going to let a few raindrops stop us from having an amazing time.”

After participants were done creating their creatures they could get their picture taken and then the ‘herd’ took to the Millennium Trail to head to Parson’s Brewery to have a snack, drink and listen to musician Nicholas Peat before heading back into town.

“Just about the idea about being a herd, a herd sticks together, looks out for each other, are kind to each other and that is how were going to operate today,” Dalby expressed. “We’re going to have a nice slow ride on the Millennium Trail, it’s 45 minutes, very slowly going along and there may be some surprises along the way but were not going to leave anybody behind.”

DeRAIL, established in 2016, is a registered nonprofit, independent arts producer and alternative platform for dialogue and collaboration across disciplinary, geographical and ideological boundaries. They bring urban and rural landscapes to life through contemporary art by moving beyond the walls of traditional gallery space to offer a new experience to both citizens as participants and artists as contributors.

“We started DeRAIL platform for art and architecture to bring artists and audiences together to think differently about the outdoor spaces that we share about how there designed and how we move through them in other ways then just the familiar ways of moving from A-B,” said Victoria Taylor, Co-founder/Curator of DeRAIL. “So there is lots of possibilities of these spaces like this (Benson Park) as being a cultural space and a space for the arts. So we work with artists and we’ve done a project on the Millennium Trail called Walking with Thunder, with Conrad Beaubien, we did monthly walks with a rescue donkey along the Millennium Trail. And now this is our second project working with Krista and the Department of Illumination and her whole team, and so were really excited to be doing this in another way that’s more about the celebration of life and getting through maybe on the other side of the pandemic, having a joyful day together in public space.”

If you missed this event, or if you would like to attend another event like this one, DeRAIL and The Department of Illumination are hosting another event on Sunday, Sept. 19 in Consecon. The group will meet by the Picton Farm Supply by the Millennium Trail on Salem Road at 1 and the event will run till approximately 4:30.

For more information on the event or to get a ticket please visit https://www.deptofillumination.org/join-our-herd

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