Carnegie storytime visits art exhibit along Miners Trail

IRONWOOD — Children wandered through Miners Memorial Heritage Park Thursday morning and found fish in the trees as part of an art exhibit by Kate Greenough, of Ironwood.

As rain trickled down, Ironwood Carnegie Library Assistant Director Lynne Wiercinski read a story to the children under the fish.

She read “The Rainbow Fish,” written and illustrated by Swiss author Marcus Pfister.

In the award-winning children's book, the most beautiful fish in the ocean is asked to share one of his shining scales with a little blue fish, and he refuses. All the other fish in the sea leave him alone, and he wonders why. He goes to the wise octopus for advice, and she tells him to give away his scales.

“I wonder if I would give my scales away?” Wiercinski said.

The rainbow fish reluctantly did so, except for one. In the end, he is less beautiful than he was before, but he has new friends and is now the happiest fish in the sea.

Wiercinski closed the cover and asked the children if they would have shared like the rainbow fish did. “Yes,” they all answered.

Children made their own shiny fish scales and were encouraged to share them with each other, like the rainbow fish did. Greenough helped them make the scales.

Greenough's exhibit features wishes from the public that are written on fish and hung up in trees among giant rainbow fish.

“It's really neat to see the wishes from people. This way, we can see what we really feel,” she said.

The exhibit is part of the ongoing Art in the Miners Park exhibit. There are eight other exhibits scattered around the park, all made by local artists.