Candlewood Arts Festival
Alison Saar’s Catfish Dreamin’ features the universally recognized figure of the catfish in a mobile sculpture that encourages the public to share stories, dreams, and memories around the theme of water. The project was first realized in 1993 in Baltimore, inspired by the local tradition of African American produce vendors delivering nourishment to neighborhoods across the city. In 2021, the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena realized a new version of this project centered on water and waterways in the San Gabriel Valley, a life-sustaining and vanishing resource throughout the region. Saar continues the journey of the catfish, a symbol of resilience, fortune, luck, and secrets, in Borrego Springs as part of the Candlewood Arts Festival. Through a series of free, interactive public workshops, facilitated by teaching artists from the Armory and students from Borrego Springs High School, Catfish Dreamin’ asks us to share stories with each other as we collectively imagine a future for ourselves.
Event Documentation
Sat, Mar 26, 6:30-7:30pm
Catfish Dreamin’ Poetry Reading and Screening
Join us for an outdoor screening of a special video program inspired by Alison Saar’s Catfish Dreamin.’ Saar selected works by Carolina Caycedo, Carmina Escobar with Wesam Nassar, and Kate Lain to join her own recent video that helps us imagine traversing the waterways with a catfish as our guide. We will be viewing the works at dusk in the amphitheater in the County Park just behind the Borrego Springs Public Library.
Photo Credit: Under the Sun Foundation and Candlewood Arts Festival
Saturday and Sunday, Mar 26-27
Drop-in Clay Workshop – Future Catfish
Let your imagination run free in this drop-in, hands-on clay workshop. Guided by teaching artists from the Borrego Art Institute and Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, you will bring your vision of what a catfish might look like in the future to life using air-dry clay.