FREE Workshops

(we help make creating easy & 

entering The Creative Costume Contest a breeze,

or at least free)

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We really are quite serious about wishing to restore community and creativity to our celebration of Halloween. In fact, it's our literal mission.  Creating is so much easier than so many think.  AND we've even got some free workshops to help you create.

Shauna Carpenter of Sheridan, WY, was our 2023 Costume Contest Winner for Best Costume.   

Everyone who has ever made their own costume knows the pure joy of creating a costume from start to finish.   They know it's even better when done with those you love, and even sometimes with neighbors and strangers engaged in communal creation.  From the dawn of Halloween in time immemorial through the 1950s, few costumes were purchased.  Almost every costume was made by its wearer or a relative, and usually from found materials.  America once the most innovative nation on earth, we believe, owing to these traditions we've lost.   How much more have we lost?


How much creativity has been lost as we forgot—in the bustle of modern life—how much fun it is and how important it is to create with our loved ones?

As Halloween became commercialized, we lost this critical communal creative folk art despite the joy and canvass it annually provided.  It served as a sort of blank cultural canvas through which our communal act of creating together knitted together neighborhoods and communities across the country.  We imagined, sketched, designed, compared, and then made together then showed off our creations in local parades in virtually every neighborhood.  Halloween's commercialization deprived us of a vital folk art enjoyed in many communities across America.

We hope you'll join us as we restore creativity and community to our celebration of Halloween.

The Science Zone: Thurs 10/10 & 10/17

DETAILS FOLLOW FOR EACH

free 

costume 

workshop

ahead

Registration is open for the Science of Paper Mache Mask Making until 3 PM Thurs 10/10.  While the Thurs 10/10/24 & Thurs 10/17/24 (4-6 PM, register for both dates) workshops at the Science Zone will conclude our 2024 efforts to exhume creativity in our community, check out The Costumes for DIY mask resources after these dates.  

Please note you DON'T have to come to A Folk Halloween Experience in made costumes although you do to participate in the contest.  You don't even have to come in a costume, but the night hag will probably give you a thorough tongue lashing.

“The Science of papier-mâché & mask making”

Science Zone Family Nights: 

- Sign up for both nights -

Thurs 10/10 & Thurs 10/17: 4-6 PM

Click Here to Register Now👈

Thursday 10/10/24, 4-6 PM: Participants under 12 must be accompanied by an adult

“Learn about the history of papier-mâché masks and costumes, look at old recipes for papier-mâché medium/glue, and create a hypothesis and design an experiment with your family or your team to test your hypotheses to find the best papier-mâché medium to become the official recipe for papier-mâché for A Folk Halloween Experience, and you'll then apply your first couple layers of paper mache.  This is a family friendly fall Halloween offering but registrations will fill up fast, so be sure to register for both 10/10 and 10/17 family nights."


Thursday 10/17/24, 4-6 PM: Participants under 12 must be accompanied by an adult

“Compare, analyze, interpret, make conclusions and publish your results with other participants.  If there's time, apply Gesso and craft paint and/or additional layers or use paper-mâché clay in order to sculpt features [and paint at home].  This is a family friendly fall Halloween offering but registrations will fill up fast, so be sure to register for both 10/10 and 10/17 family nights."

The following masks are masks made by neighbors who attended A Folk Halloween Experience in 2023 (Azriel included his work in progress for 2024).

Azriel's 2023 mask in progress

Participant's 2023 mask in progress

Participant's 2023 mask in progress

Azriel's 2024 mask in progress


Azriel's 2023 mask in progress

Participant's 2023 mask in progress

Participant's 2023 mask worn to their experience

Azriel's 2024 mask still yet in progress - Can you guess what he's designing?

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