{"id":12166,"date":"2011-08-17T12:56:05","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T17:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=12166"},"modified":"2011-08-17T12:56:05","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T17:56:05","slug":"okay%e2%80%a6why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/08\/17\/okay%e2%80%a6why\/","title":{"rendered":"Okay\u2026Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hope Wallace<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Culture. I\u2019m going to get some culture. People, myself included, sometimes joke about getting culture when they are about to head to an art museum, ballet or the symphony.<\/p>\n

Why did we start saying this anyway?<\/p>\n

The other night I was watching a documentary on the atomic bomb blast on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sitting comfortably nestled on the couch, I stared cotton-mouthed at the disturbing images of death and catastrophic destruction that flickered across the screen. How can something of such unspeakable and indescribable horror trigger thoughts of art?<\/p>\n

When generations of a community exist in an area over many years they develop their own identity, their own culture. This identity surfaces in almost everything, architecture, visual arts, music, food, theater, dance and so on. Second only to food and shelter, this becomes the core reason why we do what we do and becomes an absolute component of a complete individual and therefore healthy community.<\/p>\n

If a conquering country wants to quickly take over another country, they eliminate that country\u2019s arts along with the prosperity of the people. It physically weakens them so assimilation into the stronger society\u2019s ways will swiftly prevail. Native American youths forced into boarding schools were forbidden to wear their native dress, forbidden to speak their native dialect, and had their hair cut. The slave trade often removed Africans not only from their own continent but from their own individual tribes. Even if they were housed with other Africans, often times they spoke entirely different languages and had different customs.<\/p>\n

A lack of identity and belonging lowers morale and makes for easier subjugation.<\/p>\n

Culture is simply a word for \u201cthis is who I am\u201d. It doesn\u2019t mean snooty opera glasses, white gloves, and being lofty. Culture exists for and makes up everyone in a community.<\/p>\n

The Wassenberg Art Center is one of Van Wert\u2019s stewards of cultural preservation.<\/p>\n

In 1954, did Charles Wassenberg have an idea of the importance of the legacy he left to this community? If the attitude exists that centers for the arts are only frivolous extras for an area, think again. Art centers are as essential to a good community as shelter and food.<\/p>\n

Do-it-yourself playdough for busy and creative kids<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Kay Sluterbeck<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here at the Wassenberg Art Center we often get calls inquiring about making or doing art-related things.\u00a0 Recently we had a request for the recipe for good old homemade \u201cplaydough,\u201d sometimes known as \u201csalt dough.\u201d\u00a0 This is fun to make and fun to play with, so we\u2019re sharing it \u2013 along with some other recipes for playdough fun.<\/p>\n

HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH — Mix 1 cup salt, 1 cup flour, and \u00bd cup water.\u00a0 If necessary, add more flour to make it a doughy consistency.\u00a0 If you\u2019d like to color it, add some dry tempera paint and mix it in well.<\/p>\n

Once the playdough is mixed, it\u2019s nice to just let the kids play with it as they want to.\u00a0 If they\u2019d like to make a project, one of the easiest ones is to make ornaments using cookie cutters.\u00a0 You can make ornaments for holidays (there are even Halloween cookie cutters!) or just make ornaments that the kids can hang in their rooms.<\/p>\n

Have the children use their hands to roll and flatten the dough until it is about \u00bd inch thick.\u00a0 (You may need to help with this.)\u00a0 Then let them use cookie cutters to cut ornaments out of the playdough.\u00a0 Put the ornaments on newspaper and poke holes in the tops with the eraser end of a pencil.\u00a0 Let them dry for 24 hours, turn them over and let them dry for another 24 hours.\u00a0 (Allow more drying time if needed.)\u00a0 Children can jazz up the ornaments by applying white glue, sprinkling on a little glitter, and shaking off the excess sparkles.\u00a0 Tie yarn through the holes to make hangers.\u00a0 (These make nice holiday gifts for parents or grandparents.)<\/p>\n

If you have very small children who are still exploring things by putting them in their mouths, you can make an edible playdough that they can enjoy on many levels \u2013 through touch, smell, and taste. (This is not for children who are allergic to nuts.)\u00a0 Here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n

PEANUT BUTTER PLAYDOUGH \u2013 Mix equal amounts of peanut butter and nonfat DRY milk to the consistency of playdough, adding more peanut butter or dry milk as needed.\u00a0 Invite the kids to feel, smell, taste, and create with this different kind of mixture.\u00a0 Be sure the table surface and playing utensils are clean, because kids can eat this stuff!<\/p>\n

Another playdough project \u2013 NOT edible \u2013 is made with shredded wheat, white glue, and small margarine lids.<\/p>\n

SHREDDED WHEAT PLAYDOUGH — For each child, crumble one large shredded wheat biscuit into a bowl.\u00a0 Mix 5 drops of green food coloring with \u00bc cup white glue (Elmer\u2019s school glue or similar) and add to the cereal.\u00a0 Have the child mix the glue and shredded wheat together until the cereal is completely coated.\u00a0 Help the child pile the mixture on a small margarine lid and shape it into a wreath.\u00a0 They can decorate the wreath by pushing red hots or small beads into the green mixture.\u00a0 Leave the wreath on the lid to dry.\u00a0 While it\u2019s still slightly wet, make a hole in the top with a pencil point and use a needle to insert ribbon or yarn for hanging.\u00a0 The wreath will dry in about 24 hours.\u00a0 They can use the wreath to decorate their room, or save it for hanging on the Christmas tree!<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have little kids, there\u2019s no reason you can\u2019t try these recipes yourself.\u00a0 There is no age limit on having fun and being creative with household items.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Hope Wallace Culture. I\u2019m going to get some culture. People, myself included, sometimes joke about getting culture when they are about to head to an art museum, ballet or the symphony. Why did we start saying this anyway? The other night I was watching a documentary on the atomic bomb blast on Hiroshima and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wassenberg"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 13:49:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}