BRUNSWICK

I t’s like opening day for the summer arts season this afternoon with the fourth annual All Species Parade kicking off the town’s Second Friday ArtWalks.

This year, the parade will be followed by a community celebration on the Town Mall.

“We want to keep people downtown,” said Kristi Hatrick, executive director of Arts are Elementary, a nonprofit that brings visual artists, writers and performers into the Brunswick elementary schools for residencies.

A free concert for all ages by ImproVox, which includes Matt Loosigian, a local musician, will be held in the Town Mall gazebo. According to Hatrick, mall vendors will stay open and bake sale items will be available, too.

“Our hope is that people come for the parade, stay for the celebration, eat dinner and go to some art galleries,” she said.

The All Species Parade is a celebration of the beauty, diversity and wonder of the natural world, inviting people to step outside who they are every day. The goal of the parade is to celebrate, educate and focus attention on caring for the environment.

“A species is a living thing,” Hatrick said. “We want people to try to stay away from dragons and unicorns and robots and make-believe. We are living things and we are all interconnected.”

That doesn’t mean parade entries can’t be whimsical.

Artistic approaches in the spirit of the natural world are encouraged, including costumes, street puppets, music, papier mâché, dancing, drumming and visual storytelling. Human-powered vehicles (bikes, unicycles, wagons, wheelchairs) are welcome as are visual and musical expressions of any natural species.

But please leave the messages, labels, logos, words, as well as pets or other live animals at home.

Brunswick’s first All Species Parade, held in May 2010, was the culmination of a collaboration between Arts are Elementary and Spindleworks, a nonprofit arts center for adults with disabilities.

“We learned about one in Olympia, Wash., that’s been going on for decades. We used that as a template,” Hatrick said.

From the beginning, Spindleworks artists and artist mentors worked with local school children to create species for the parade. The first year, second-graders made giant bird puppets of living species out of chicken wire, cloth, fabric paints and supporting materials. The resulting bird sculptures served as the anchor pieces for the first All Species Parade.

This year, first-graders from Coffin Elementary School worked with Spindleworks artist mentors Catherine Worthington and Maureen Block to create “botanical banners” during their Arts are Elementary residencies that began in October 2012.

They will line up on the Town Mall with all the species who come out to play at 4 p.m. to lead the parade, beginning at 4:30. The parade route heads down Maine Street toward the river, with a right on Bank Street, another right onto Federal Street and back to the mall via a right on School Street.

Additionally, Five Rivers Arts Alliance’s first ArtWalk of the season will take place following the parade. This year’s walk features 23 locations, including 13 working artists’ studios; more than 100 artists showing at coop sites, restaurants and businesses; seven art galleries; and the two art museums at Bowdoin. Live music at nine different locations is planned for each month. More information about ArtWalk can be found at www.5raa.org.

A highlight of the first Art- Walk is “Heads or Tails,” an exhibit of species, sponsored by Spindleworks. The opening reception is from 5 to 8 p.m. at Frontier Cafe, Fort Andross, 14 Maine St.

The exhibit includes work from artists throughout the community including 25 of the artists of Spindleworks. More than 100 works will adorn the walls to benefit the Coastal Humane Society, which will receive a percentage of all sales.

For more information about Spindleworks, visit www.spindleworks.org.

For information about Arts are Elementary, visit www.artsareelementary.org.