by SARAH THOMACK
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph will be joining in the celebration of Missouri’s Bicentennial next year with a festival.
The Allied Arts Council, along with city officials, made the announcement on Thursday of plans for ‘St. Joseph 2021: From steam to S.T.E.A.M.’
“St. Joseph was founded through steam,” says Teresa Fankhauser, Allied Arts Council Executive Director. “The steam engines that brought people to St. Joseph up the river, that was the beginning. Now we’re celebrating S.T.E.A.M. - Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math. That was really important to us because all of those things make St. Joseph great.”
Fankhauser says two years ago, the state of Missouri reached out to the Allied Arts Council because they were getting ready to put together plans for the Missouri Bicentennial and they wanted Trails West to be a part of those plans.
“At that time we said yes, that would be definitely something that we wanted to do,” Fankhauser says. “Little did we know that year would be the last Trails West. But we made a commitment to the state and we thought it was important that St. Joseph find a way to commemorate the state’s Bicentennial while celebrating all that is great about St. Joseph.”
The free festival will feature a musical history tour, history reenactors, S.T.E.A.M. activities, art and more. Remington Nature Center Manager Sarah Elder is coordinating the Chautauqua Stage.
“Our plan for that is to have volunteers do presentations, some as living history characters as the person they’re portraying, others are simply presentations,” Elder says. “We’re looking to represent all the stories of St. Joseph so all of those stories can be told from Native American, up through the 20th century including south side, north side, the different cultures involved, African American.”
The festival will be held August 20-21, 2021, at Civic Center Park. More details and a website will be coming soon.