News…

MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. — Families are invited to create noisemakers, snowman pictures, paper pictograph posters, and other crafts on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013, as part of the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex’s second annual “Out with the old, in with the new” winter crafting extravaganza.

The event kicks off the Moundsville museum’s 2013 season of family programs. From noon to 4 p.m., visitors are invited to have fun making crafts in the museum’s Activity Room. Visitors will use seeds, corn kernels and small pieces of wood to transform plastic water bottles into rattles that they can decorate with ribbons, tape, and other items that have been saved in the museum’s closets. Other odds and ends will be combined to make snowman pictures. A supply of brown craft paper will be transformed into simulated rock paintings known as pictographs using natural pigments ground on sandstone slabs. Some craft supplies may be limited, but there will be plenty on hand to keep the museum’s Activity Room humming all afternoon.

This will also be the last weekend of the “Seed Ornament” craft activity at the museum’s Discovery Table, as well as the museum’s “Interpretive Garden Holiday Tree” decorated with produce from the museum’s Interpretive Garden, which will be on display through Jan. 14.

“These activities encourage hands-on craft making, and they are fun interactive activities for the entire family,” said David Rotenizer, site manager at Grave Creek.

For an “in with the new” preview of the coming year, visitors also can pick up the museum’s new calendar of family programs for 2013 as well as its 2013 Lecture and Film Series program listing.

For more information about this or any other programs at Grave Creek Mound, contact Andrea Keller, cultural program coordinator at Grave Creek Mound, at (304) 843-4128 or e-mail her at Andrea.K.Keller@wv.gov. Indicate in the message if you are interested in receiving information about upcoming events at the mound.

Operated by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex features the largest conical burial mound in the New World and ranks as one of the largest earthen mortuary mounds anywhere in the world. The Delf Norona Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. It is closed on Mondays.

The West Virginia Division of Culture and History is an agency within the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts with Kay Goodwin, Cabinet Secretary. The Division, led by Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith, brings together the past, present and future through programs and services focusing on archives and history, arts, historic preservation and museums. For more information about the Division’s programs, events and sites, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

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