Visiting artist at Schneider Museum helped with handcrafted masks and costumes

A procession celebrating spring wound its way from the ice rink on Winburn Way to the Ashland Plaza on Saturday afternoon, drawing an estimated 150 participants with a like number of spectators.

Artists, musicians and community members donned handmade masks and costumes and carried puppets to ask the spirit of spring for the new growth they would like to see to fruition, according to an event announcement.

The procession, entitled “What The Robins Whispered: A Procession to Celebrate the Coming of Spring,” was organized by the Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University, where the visiting artist this term is Dennis McNett of Wolfbat Studios in Virginia.

Spring officially begins at 2:24 p.m. Monday with the spring equinox, and last until the summer solstice at 7:57 a.m. June 21.

While spring may be in the air, rain is too, with showers likely Monday and at least a chance of rain in the forecast for Ashland for the next week. High temperatures are expected to be in the low 50s with lows in high 30s.

Email Ashland.news Executive Editor Bert Etling at [email protected] or call or text him at 541-631-1313.