Honey for the Heart
Passion Works is Honey for the Heart.
Established in 2012, the original idea was to create a positive art filled community experience with the Athens Halloween phenomenon. Athens is famous for attracting 20,000 - 30,000 merry makers celebrating Halloween. We thought, what if we had a pop up collaborative community studio with giant puppet making and added a fabulous parade as the kick off to the event? What if we could attract all ages, make visual the spirit of Athens and have a blast?
So we did.
We partnered with our sponsors, Arts for Ohio, Ohio University Learning Communities, and the Ohio Arts Council, to made costumes, puppets and silliness. Musicians, dancers, families, student jumped into the making and marching as we put on some spectacular homegrown parades.
The puppets have been invited to theater productions, musical events, other parades, university classes. We also began to make big giant soft sculptures that could be installed in trees, libraries, stages, expanding opportunity and delight.
We use repurposed materials (things perceived as junk) including plastic, cardboard, sticks, fabric. We morph these treasures into fantastical larger than life things. Over a three week pop up studio in October we have an average of 2,000 helping with the build. Good times are had by all!
