Nonprofit Merges Science and Arts for Community Impact
- 2 Inspire Peace
- Aug 10
- 3 min read
Oak Cliff nonprofit blends science and arts for back-to-school festival at Fair Park
2 Inspire Peace brought together engineering professors, local students, and Dallas artists for a STEAM festival to encourage students to see the beauty of science and art before heading back to school.
By Sally Avila Edwards,
Staff Writer
Aug 9, 2026
People take part in painting during STEAM Festival, on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026 at Fair. Park in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Dr. Zhe Yin arrived at Texas Discovery Gardens in Fair Park with a drone and virtual reality headset in tow.
The technology is normally used by students in his classrooms at the University of Texas at Arlington — but on Saturday, elementary and middle school students got to try their hand at the drone-flying simulation in South Dallas.
“The leading force of evolving technology started from research,” Yin said, watching two young sisters take turns trying virtual reality training. “If you see this today, you will know after a few years what you’ll see on the market.”
Yin was one of the many researchers, artists, and educators at Saturday’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics festival hosted by Oak Cliff-based nonprofit 2 Inspire Peace. Dozens of children poured into the free event with their parents in tow, eager for one last summer adventure before the school year begins.
Nikisha Ahsikin, the executive director of 2 Inspire Peace, said she hopes the day gives families a “reset” before diving into the new school year.
“For 2 Inspire Peace, this is a huge way of giving the community recess,” Ahsikin said.
Families explored exhibits and outdoor spaces at the Texas Discover Gardens, taking turns at painting stations, watching demonstrations from Frisco robotics team Technobotz, and clapping along as artists performed onstage in the Grand Hall.
For Ahsikin, the event was designed to help connect the sciences to the arts — blending professors from UTA with poets and dancers from the City of Dallas’ Community Artists Program to show students how the two fields intersect.
“I have not ever been to a STEAM festival where it was art heavy,” she said. “That’s the one thing that definitely sets apart this STEAM festival from anything that I've seen or experienced before.”
But students didn’t just get to learn about science and art at the festival — they also got a taste of entrepreneurship. The event brought together local artisans for a community vendor mart, where makers sold everything from handcrafted hair clips and jewelry to freshly squeezed lemonade.
Nine-year-old Kylen Richardson proudly sold lemonade with his mother, Denia, who he said brought him to the festival to help grow his own business — Ky’s Lemonade.
“My mom wants to teach me how to open a business,” Kylen said.
He wasn’t the only student looking to make the most of the festival. Jessica and Jin Zhang, two rising seniors in Plano ISD, brought their nonprofit KiTNETIC to the festival to distribute kinetic maker kits to younger students.
“We try to teach kids these harder concepts, break it down into something that’s fun,” Jessica said. The Zhangs, who are not related, handed out two different kits, made of construction paper, rubber bands, cardboard rolls, and cotton balls with instructions for how to make a paper helicopter or catapult.
“It’s just been a passion of mine, where I just use some of my interests and make it fun,” Jessica said. “This hopefully encourages other people to see the fun and joy.”
Aug 9, 2026
Sally Avila Edwards
Staff writer
Sally Avila Edwards is an intern for The Dallas Morning News. Avila Edwards covers the latest breaking and trending news about the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She graduated from Harvard with a degree in Government and English Literature. Originally from Central Texas, Avila Edwards previously reported for KXAN Austin and The Harvard Crimson.
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