I know a lot of people who don’t care for crowds. Are you one of them?
I used to be until I experienced Arts Festival crowds. They make crowds seem small. It’s lovely.
And there has been no shortage of crowds the last few days. Every performance I’ve attended – and there have been lots, let me tell you – has had a nice, friendly group. Very supportive of even the new performers, respectful of fellow audience members…in short, the way a crowd should be.
As you enjoy the last 24 hours of the Festival, remember to respect your fellow Festival go-ers and the music and art of our event!
Until next time!
Arts Festival employees, volunteers, artists and supporters gathered under brilliant sunshine (and the bluest of blue skies) for the announcement of the winners of the 2011 Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts awards.
Linda Gall, who with husband Blake Gall, sponsors the Arete Best of Show award, presented the award to ceramicist Luis Enrique Gutierrez, from Zebulon, NC. The Best of Show award comes with a $2,500 cash prize. Visitors can see this year’s winning works on Fraser Street (booth R-42).
Glass artist Michael Mikula (O-43) won this year’s Fine Arts award. Frost & Conn Incorporated Booth of Distinction went to Thomas Dumke (P-14)
Special guest Jeanne Gleason, vice chair for the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, assisted in the presentation of the awards of Excellence and Distinction to the following artists (booth numbers in parentheses):
John C. Mason Award of Excellence in Jewelry Design: Aileen Lampman (A-41)
The Lautsch Family Award of Excellence: Karyn Debrasky (A-31)
Award of Excellence: David Greenbaum (P-11/12)
Award of Excellence: Aaron Hequembourg (A-39)
Award of Excellence: Jana Scott (A-26)
Award of Distinction: Jack Hill (B-01)
Award of Distinction: Sandi Garris (A-46)
Award of Distinction: Barbara Bayne (A-16)
Award of Distinction: Melissa Mastrangelo (R-41)
Awards of Merit were awarded to the following artists:
John & Sharon McCarthy Award of Merit: Susan Levi-Goerlich (B-07)
McLanahan’s Penn State Room Award of Merit: Don McWhorter (M-27)
Robert & Virginia Mountz Award of Merit: Mary Jackson (A-28)
White, Roan & Associates Award of Merit: Wayne Werner (A-11)
Brown & Associates Award of Merit: Sylvia Lehman (B-28)
Connections Clothing Award of Merit: Peter Saenger (B-12)
Anne Layng Award of Merit: Sangjoon Park (O-02)
Barash Media Award of Merit: Mariko Swisher (P-08)
Kissinger, Bigatel, & Brower Award of Merit: Kim Young (O-36)
Award of Merit: Susan Griggs Allen (O-23)
Award of Merit: Janet Chico (M-39)
Award of Merit: Ummarid Eitharong (R-20)
Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!
It’s confession time.
As the Festival blogger, I have to cover a lot of ground each day. I try to make it to as many performances as possible, see every booth, check the progress of Italian Street Painting and the sand sculpture, and capture the every day beauty of the Festival. I won’t count, for now, basic human needs like Sno-cones, lemonade and Creamery ice cream.
It’s a lot for one girl to take.
As you can imagine, I don’t get to see entire performances very often. I swing by the Festival Shell, scoot by Allen Street then pop over to the Park in a pretty regular loop.
It’s how I get to everything in order to report back.
Well, I’ve been stopped in my tracks tonight by The Frank Vignola Trio at Schwab Auditorium.
They are brilliant – brilliantly talented, brilliantly clever, brilliantly charming, and brilliantly well-rounded in their music tastes.
I can’t break away to move on to the next performance even though their current intermission affords me the perfect opportunity to slip out.
I can’t.
So, faithful readers. You not only know the secret of how I cover so much ground but you now know of my newest infatuation: The Frank Vignola Trio.
Oops, the flicker of the lights means they are coming back.
Sorry, must put down the iPhone and be swept away….
Thursday is unofficially locals’ day at the Festival – so many of the wonderful Centre Countians who have helped make this event special and unique take the day of work to enjoy the first day of the Sidewalk Sale.
Today is no different.
It’s sunny and gorgeous – with a lovely breeze – this morning and it’s wonderful to see familiar faces and welcome first-timers this Festival Thursday.
Your faithful blogger is standing in the sun at the Allen Street Stage listening to Heritage Brass play tunes from a simpler, less plugged-in time (as I use every bit of technology available to write this post). In the background, screams from kiddos playing in the dumping buckets, the splash of water, the hiss of the misting tent, and (my favorite) the sound of delight as friends pass each other on the street.
Perfection.
Now, back to the music for me!
Thursday means the kick-off of the 2011 Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition and the beginning of the jurying for our Festival.
But the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts already awarded the prize winners in Images 2011, the Festival’s annual indoor exhibition of fine art and fine craft.
To see all the accepted entries for this year’s Images exhibit, visit the Robeson Gallery through July 17, 2011. The Robeson Gallery is located in the HUB-Robeson Center on Penn State’s University Park campus; hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. The exhibit is free.
While you are there, check out the award winning art:
The Best in the Show Award was awarded to Cazia Bradley, of Port Matilda, PA for her lithograph, Fortoken. The award is worth $1,000.
The Revington Arthur Award for Excellence in Painting was awarded to Stephen March, of Spring Grove, PA, for his acrylic painting Surveillance 03/06/2008. This award, which includes a $300 honorarium, is sponsored by the Revington Arthur Foundation.
The William D. Davis Award in Drawing was awarded to Nancy Palfey of Bellefonte, PA , for her work, My Alter Ego. The Davis Award includes a $300 honorarium.
Awards of Merit, each worth $250, were given to:
Marcia DeCamp, Palmyra, NY: Storm Clouds at Sunrise
Ruth Jourjine, Titusville, NJ: Sea Form3
Nancy Middlebrook, Philadelphia, PA: Ireland
Diane Paroda, State College, PA: Sorry
Mary Lou Pepe, Boalsburg, PA: Engaging View
The Viewers’ Choice Award, which is also sponsored by the Revington Arthur Foundation, will be announced at the end of the exhibition. Those interested in voting can find ballots at the gallery desk.
For more information about the exhibition and gallery, please visit http://www.arts-festival.com/images.php and http://www.sa.psu.edu/usa/galleries/.
Well, we’ve kicked off the Arts Festival with Children & Youth Day.
We’re not going to lie – it started a little shaky – cloudy with some spitting rain – but it has picked up nicely!
Lovely sunshine has broken through the clouds and muffled laughter has turned into unbridled screams of sheer delight!
It’s a thrill to see kids of all ages creating crafts and learing about science on Old Main Lawn – thanks to our helpful friends from various Penn State departments and facilities like Palmer Museum of Art, Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, Penn State Public Broadcasting, and more.
On the other end of the Festival route, at Sidney Friedman Park, little hands are making music at the Robert M. Sides Family Music Center Instrument Petting Zoo…those are the same sticky hands that are enjoying kettle corn and sno-cones at the food vendors in the Park.
In a couple short hours we’ll see the Festival Procession come down Allen Street. The Procession starts at 4pm from Old Main Lawn but if you want to be part of this lively parade, be sure to meet at 3:15 by the Festival Shell to pick out your puppet and get in line.
See you soon!
PS: Be sure to check in from your iPhone or Droid during the Festival. We’ve set up Facebook places throughout the Festival route…so use them often!
Jurying is one of the first major milestones on the road to each Arts Festival – and our 5 jurors had their hands full this year with over 1,100 applications (for about 300 or so Sidewalk Sale spaces). For those of you who may think of Arts Festival as a local or regional art show, think again. Applications came from as far as Hawaii and Argentina. Wow!
Last week our 5 fearless jurors came to Central PA for 2 intense (yet fun!) days of reviewing and ranking in order to narrow all those applications down to the artists you will see along the Sidewalk Sale from July 14 – 17.
CPFA 2011 Jurors (left to right): Jimmy Clark, Ron Thurston, Sue Reno, Sharon Massey, Karla Prickett
Who are these talented (and brave) souls?
Jimmy Clark served as the executive director of the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, as well as the director of New Jersey’s Peters Valley Craft Center. A widely recognized ceramic artist, he has exhibited and taught workshops in Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean, as well as throughout the United States and Canada. He has curated and juried numerous exhibitions both in the United States and abroad, in addition to authoring many scholarly articles on contemporary ceramics.
Sharon Massey is a jewelry artist living in Pittsburgh, where she also works at the Society for Contemporary Craft. In 2008, Sharon was one of twelve Americans whose work was chosen to tour Japan as part of the Japan Jewelry Design Association Biennale Exhibition. In 2009, she received the Art Jewelry Forum’s Emerging Artist Award. She has exhibited her own work internationally, and it is held in prestigious museum collections, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Karla Prickett has served as Visual Arts Coordinator for Salina Arts & Humanities, Salina, Kansas since 1991. She is the Director for the Smoky Hill River Festival’s juried Fine Art Show, Four Rivers Craft Show, art installation projects, and art patron program. She also serves as project coordinator for the City of Salina’s Community Art & Design Program. She holds a degree in art education from Fort Hayes State University, Hays, Kansas.
Sue Reno is an award winning fiber artist who lives and works in Lancaster County, PA. Her art quilts, featuring botanical motifs based on plants from her own organic garden have been selected for the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program and have been featured on HGTV, in addition to numerous professional publications. She has exhibited in many solo and group shows, in addition to lecturing on the creative process, and serving as a juror for festivals and exhibitions.
Ron Thurston is a past president of the Pittsburgh Watercolor Society. He is a founding member of Pittsburgh Underwater and served on the board of Trustees of the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Ron has a long career as a commercial artist, and teaches workshops at Sweetwater Center for the Arts and Touchstone Center for Crafts and is President of Watercolors, an artists’ owned gallery located in the heart of Pittsburgh’s downtown cultural district.
Each juror marveled at how nifty the digital technology is—it’s quite a ways from the old days of carousel slide projectors.
To balance all the fun technological advances, Arts Festival still juries local artists the old-fashioned way – by inviting them to bring their pieces in person. Seeing this art in person invited lots of good discussion about how things were made and design philosophy. For example, is a particular item supposed to look hand made or as flawless as if it had been made by a machine?
When they weren’t pouring over images from talented artists they were enjoying some of State College’s traditions – like dinner at The Tavern. Pat Daughterty, owner of The Tavern and all-around good guy, hosts jurors every year in the Champions Room, surrounded by photos of many of Penn State’s #1 teams.
Jurors will return to State College in July to choose our Arete Best in Show winner and award the other prizes for the 2011 Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. Look for them as you are enjoying the Festival!
The following individuals were elected to the Board of Directors of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts at its annual meeting held on Thursday, October 14, 2010.
Star Campbell, independent nutrition consultant; Sue Haug, Director, School of Music, Penn State; Anne Layng, Operations Manager, Geisinger Health System; Joyce Robinson, Curator, Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State.
The following people were re-elected to a second three-year term: Katherine Allen, Partner, McQuaide Blasko; Adam Duff, financial planner, uFinancial; Bill Ryan, Research Associate, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Penn State.
The following individuals were elected as officers of the corporation: Deborah Marron, President; Adam Duff, Vice-President; Bob Mountz, Treasurer; Susan Steinberg, Secretary.
The mission of the Festival is to celebrate the arts with presentations of diverse, high-quality visual and performing arts through cooperative volunteer support from the community and The Pennsylvania State University.
The Arts Festival was recently ranked as one of the top ten fine art and craft shows in the United States, according to the readers of Sunshine Artist magazine, a publication focused on the outdoor art and craft industry. The Festival was also featured as the cover story in the summer issue of Pursuits, the official travel magazine of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
In addition to producing the summer Festival, the CPFA also produces First Night® State College, an alcohol-free, family-oriented New Year’s Festival.
2011 First Night State College will take place from December 31, 2010 to January 1, 2011 in downtown State College. The 2011 Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts will be from July 13-17, 2011. Children’s Day will be July 13 and the Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition will be from July 14-17.
It’s hard to believe that the 2010 Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts has come to a close.
A quick break from Festival duties for a snapshot...
We’ve had so much fun – and we hope you have, too!
Sunday brought these fine Festival memories:
- Summit City Saints captivated the hearts of young and old Festival-goers. People broke out into spontaneous swing dance – which brought smiles to the entire audience. Most heartwarming: an older man, who may have swing danced at the height of its original popularity, dancing with a member of the State High Swing Dance Club. The Summit City Saints also brought little musicians up on stage to help with percussion. There is very few things as sweet as a toddler with a tambourine and a flag visor.
- Jewelers Ed and Debbie Mitchell from Rising Sun, IN shared a sweet story that has that “It could only happen at Arts Festival” kind of vibe: A couple got engaged in front of their booth! It seems that when the couple first started dating a few years ago, the soon-to-be-groom bought his then-new-girlfriend a bracelet from Ed & Debbie’s Arts Festival booth. This guy tracked down their booth this year, confirmed with his girlfriend that this indeed was the place, dropped to one knee in the middle of Allen Street and proposed! As you can imagine, the event drew quite a crowd! Debbie took a photo – which we’ll post as soon as she sends it. We’re also trying to track down the happy couple. Can you help?
- The annual Arts Festival Staff photo is always a fun event (see the final product above). It’s one of the few times during the Festival that all the movers and shakers get together since we’re all so busy running around. The photo doesn’t capture everyone involved in making the Festival a huge success each year – there are hundreds of volunteers that we rely on, partners at Penn State and the Borough of State College, generous sponsors. Thank you one and all!
The 2010 Arts Festival may be over but we’ll keep providing information and updates about the Festival (and the other event we produce, First Night State College) in the coming weeks, including more photos and videos.
We encourage you to post your photos and share your stories on Facebook…and tell your friends how awesome Arts Festival is so they come next year (BTW: Arts Festival is July 13-17, 2011)!
