The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) and the St. Catharines Downtown Association will host a day filled with free family-friendly Earth Day activities on Saturday, April 22. Go Green! Earth Day edition will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the MIWSFPA and the surrounding downtown area.

The downtown campus will host natural, sustainable and ethically sourced vendors, including a seedling sale with all profits going to the MIW Student Food Security fund, and a range of environmentally conscious activities and information booths.

Guest speakers, including Brock community members, will share their expertise in a variety of green-themed topics throughout the day in Room 156 of the MIWSFPA at 15 Artists’ Common. They include:

• 10:30 a.m.: Elizabeth Vlossak, a cultural historian, avid gardener and Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Humanities, will explore the radical history and transformative potential of urban gardening while reflecting on her own family’s unwitting engagement in ‘guerrilla gardening.’
• 11:30 a.m.: Laurie Morrison, Brock Collections Librarian and Department of Visual Arts student, will demonstrate how to use kitchen waste and other natural materials to make eco-friendly analogue photographs at home.
• 1 p.m.: Liz Benneian, an award-winning environmentalist and Executive Director of the Ontariogreen Conservation Association, will present a lecture on the history of birds, including how some have evolved from dinosaurs.
• 2:30 p.m.: Sarah Yurkiw, owner of Ruby Red Beautiful, will provide a brief history of sustainable beauty and how it has evolved. She will also address how making the choice to buy sustainable products can impact the planet.

For a full list of vendors, speakers and activities, visit the Go Green! Earth Day edition page on the St. Catharines Downtown Association website.