Long Beach celebrates Mother Earth

The Long Beach Arts Council hosted its annual Earth Day celebration Saturday, featuring live music performances, arts and crafts and even a new sculpture reveal. 

The sculpture, which is a large, colorful turtle, was installed outside City Hal. It was donated by the New York Marine Rescue Center as part of a marine life awareness initiative across several waterfront Long Island communities.

“Myself, and one of the other board members, painted and made the sculpture,” said Eve Hammer, the director of development for the Arts Council. “We actually painted it last year for Earth Day, but it had been in storage for about a year because there was scaffolding up at City Hall.”

The artwork was designed, painted, and mosaicked by Arts Council board member Susan Tian Clancy, and Hammer, with assistance from 6th graders Maximo Vitolo and Ellie Clancy. 

On the day of the reveal, the sculpture was covered with an upcycled tarp, embellished with pieces of beach trash collected by Long Beach Cleanup, a local non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the coastal community. 

Hammer said they’ve done other projects across the city, including last summer at the recreation center with a mural and painting the walking path there. “We were trying to figure out where it was going to be this time, maybe facing the bay. The city decided that they wanted in front of City Hall, so that’s where the turtle went.”

Throughout the day, live musical performances took place on the main stage, featuring local musicians and a choral group organized by Arts Council Board Member, Abbie Golding.

“She put together the setlist of local musicians,” Hammer said of Golding. “There were six musicians who played sets and then she put together a choral group that sang a few songs. There was about two hours of live music and then there was a drum circle, which was part of the art of wellness program as well.”

The drum circle was hosted by Majestic Healing.

Long Beach Cleanup, New York Marine Rescue Center, and Long Beach High School’s Hope Environmental Club set up booths to engage attendees with activities promoting environmental awareness. Kids also made arts and crafts with paint, glue, tape and every color of the rainbow, and added some custom pictures to the sidewalk with chalk.

“The turnout was exceptional, Hammer said. “We had a lot of kids and we had families. We have people that came to see the music, too. It was a really full community event.”