2022 Workshops

BLEMF 2022 offered a wide variety of ways for people of all ages to engage with activities from the early modern period to the present. We kicked off the week by learning trendy 18th century Scottish dances from Isshallyn members. Tim MacDonald led us in a full workout with the beautiful accompaniment of cellist Jeremy Ward. The athletics continued with a stage fighting workshop led by Andrés Lopex complete with foam swords to take home.

Wednesday, we caught our breath learning about historical fashion styles from Lydia Spellman and painting our own masks. We continued to explore physical materials of the past seeing a 17th century style printing press, making paper, and seeing the fantastic historical music book collections with the generous staff of the Lilly Library.

Friday took a scientific turn learning about acoustics and instrument making with a collaboration between Wonderlab and members of the Historical Performance Institute, Sam Motter and Adrian Murillo. After a such whirlwind of historically inspired activities, we could all use a drink! The festival workshops ended with an adults-only workshop at Cardinal Spirits, led by Devon Nelson, sampling a punch recipe by Hadyn and learning how he and others in eighteenth-century England partied.