Imagine In The Park- a free children’s arts festival held annually in Gage Park on the first Saturday in June.
Our festival features hands-on workshops hosted by professional local artists in various forms of the arts such as: dance, music, storytelling, poetry, drawing, performance arts and much more. On the business side, we are a non-profit organization, that is also partnered with the Rotary Club of Hamilton AM and have been putting our unique festival on for 10+ years.
Our main mission is to showcase the importance of children and the arts through a free, interactive arts festival where children and families can learn from professional artists and authors through discovery and creative expression. Historically we have focused on the Downtown Hamilton Area as we wanted to bring the arts & literature to youth from communities in need in the Hamilton area, as every child deserves a chance to realize their full potential regardless of finances, ethnic background, religion or region of living.
We have thousands of books available at our festival each year, and so far every child that joins has been able to walk away with a free, new book of their choosing thanks to our In-Kind Sponsors: Frontier College, First Book Canada, The Children’s Book Bank Toronto and Scholastics Canada. The joy and wonder on the children’s and their parents’ faces when they see all the beautiful book covers laid out on our tables and hear that they can choose one to bring home is incredible.
Each year, we also invite community organizations as a means to inform the parents that join our festival of the opportunity they can provide.
July 2011 was the inaugural year for Imagine in the Park, the free children’s arts and literature festival. Gage Park Hamilton was chosen as the venue where it has been held annually since then because of its accessibility. Alliances were forged with many loyal sponsors and donors the initial year, a number of whom have remained with us since then. A large number of individuals volunteer at the event each year including high school students who assist the artists and receive credit towards the community hours they must accrue in order to graduate.
