Want to Have a Picnic in the Easton Cemetery?

The idea of having a picnic in the Easton Cemetery might not sound that appealing.

But according to the Arts Community of Easton's Bill Rich, that's only if you think of the land as just as cemetery. His group wants to get people to think of it as its creators did: as a park.

"It's a beautiful place," said Rich, ACE's vice president. "It's a place of green life."

It's also a place that could use some beautification, which is why ACE will host a picnic fundraiser in the cemetery on Saturday, June 15.

Rich, joined by Easton Mayor Sal Panto and event coordinator Kate Ramsay McCardle, announced the picnic Monday at a city hall news conference.

The picnic—which ACE hopes becomes a yearly event—runs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and will feature Art in Action demonstrations, walking tours given by the Sigal Museum, live music, scavenger hunts and yoga demonstrations from Easton Yoga.

ACE will also display works by local artists which reimagines the cemetery's area markers and trash containers.

Ultimately, the goal is to both improve the cemetery and help connect the West Ward with downtown Easton, McCardle said.

"It's not going anywhere, it's the best possible space that we have," she said.

More than 29,000 people are buried in the cemetery, including George Taylor, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Aaron Hoff, Lafayette College's first black student, and James Madison Porter, one of the college's founders, James Madison Porter, who was also related—through marriage—to Abraham Lincoln.

For more information, visit the Arts Community of Easton's Facebook page, or e-mail info@eastonart.org.