Art in the park in Providence

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - As the summer starts to wind down, many want to take advantage of the weather and spend as much time outside as possible. There’s a way to enjoy the great outdoors in the capital city while learning at the same time.

KiDOinfo story time is a program held at Burnside Park in providence.

"It was created about three years ago in collaboration with Greater Kennedy Plaza as a way to bring families down to the city and enjoy fun, creative activities around storytelling and it's free and accessible to everybody,” said founder and publisher, Anisa Raoof.

The programming is part of a larger revitalization effort to transform downtown Providence and the parks into a vital city center.

"It's open to anybody. We have a lot of people from the city but we have a lot of people coming from all over the state now coming down enjoying the park, enjoying the toys in the park. There are food trucks here. They might come and stop at the library after or just stay and have a picnic,” added Raoof.

Entertaining the kids were none other than the Big Nazo characters.

"People are generally surprised by just how much we have going on. And it's really important that we provide free access to these kinds of opportunities to the general public. People who might not otherwise know about these organizations,” said Jennifer Smith, program manager for Greater Kennedy Plaza.

Local authors also take part by reading to the kids, like author/illustrator Alison Paul.

"Art in the Park came about because story time had been so successful for the past couple summers and we figured if we could keep the kids here and have another project for them to work on it would be a really great way to bring people into the park,” said Paul.

The project of the summer is inspired by a popular book.

"We took a little page out of Crockett Johnson's book 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' and we're doing Providence and the purple crayon this year” Paul said.

Cooperating, sharing, and learning take place all while being creative at the same time. Kids and families can experience all in the capital city.

“It's so important that it's a fun family event. I remember when I first had my child I went to KiDOinfo. I was wondering ‘what was I going to do with my kid all day?’ It was great to have fun, really unique educational events where I could see other moms and dads and other families and really experience something that's of high quality and high value,” said Smith.

Story time will be held one last time this summer on Thursday, August 23 starting at 10:30 a.m. and is followed by Art in the Park. However, the events don't stop there. On September 7 there will be a special reading of "Harold and the Purple Crayon" which kicks off ‘Playful Providence’.

Visit http://kidoinfo.com/ri/ and http://www.kennedyplaza.org/ for a list of all the events from KiDOinfo and Greater Kennedy Plaza.