April 21, 2016

Attempt to create record dreamcatcher is Saturday

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- An attempt to capture a spot in the “Guinness World Records” book for the largest dreamcatcher ever created is happening at Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Touch of Nature Environmental Center this weekend and the public is invited. 

The record-breaking effort is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, near the administration building of the center, located about eight miles south of Carbondale on Giant City Road. Steve Gariepy, environmental education coordinator for Touch of Nature, and Randy Osborn, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Carbondale, direct the project. They will lead a group of artists and volunteers working to weave a dreamcatcher with a diameter of 14 feet. Visitors can view the process and add their own “dreams” to the work of art. 

The project is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts through a grant facilitated by the Boys and Girls Club of Carbondale. It is part of a series of “Here We Live” art events and this program focuses on the aspect of living on earth and being at home in nature, according to Gariepy.  

The completed dreamcatcher will hang in the grove of trees near Touch of Nature’s administration building. 

For more information about the Build the Dreamcatcher of Your Dreams event, call 618/453-1121 or email tonec@siu.edu.