Halloween Art and Nature Festival

The Halloween Art & Nature Festival is a family-friendly free event inviting all children and families to celebrate Halloween and Louisiana's special natural surroundings through art, music, food, and science—all on Brandon Ballengée's 25-acre nature reserve and eco-educational campus. This year's theme is "Space" (to be interpreted as you please: outerspace, macroscopic,  microscopic, etc.). Special guests will include a NASA astronaut, an origami engineer, and a children's book illustrator. Workshops include spacesuit art, rocket building, origami designs for space travel, water bear hunting, terraforming, magnetism and magnetic materials, Darth Gator drawing and engineering, microscopic monsters activity, invasive species cooking demos, and celestial pumpkin decorating. Onsite will be ample creepies and crawlies, including everything from live snakes, reptiles, and spiders to preserved "alien specimens". Plus, storytimes, exhibitions, and trick or treating, of course. Live music performances will be curated by Laura Huval of Sweet Cecilia and food will be provided by Chef Colt Patin and his students from the Culinary Institute in Baton Rouge. Registration is required, but the event is free. 10 am–4 pm. Details on the Atelier de la Nature Facebook Page.