Art + Community
Published 6:18 am Thursday, February 28, 2008
Mark your calendar now for the 13th Annual Shoreline Arts Festival, on Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29 at the Shoreline Center.
The festival provides a wealth of experiences with continuous entertainment, music and dance, juried art shows for adults and students, a photography show, artists and crafters in action, hands-on art, the Literature Live venue with writing contests, readings, storytelling, theatre presentations and a used-book sale, and food. Performers new to the festival this year include Kickshaw, Northwest Irish Dancers, Nueva Era, Zazou Gypsy Jazz, Pacific Island Music and Dance and Chaopraya. Saturday only, juggling comedians Brothers From Different Mothers will mingle with the crowd.
Returning to the festival this year is the Missoula Children’s Theatre with a production of “Hansel &Gretel,” featuring a cast of 50 local students. Poetry performance group Typing Explosion will be back, bringing their vintage typewriters to create poetry on demand. Cartoon artist Pete Bagge will also be featured in the Literature Live room. The Shoreline Philippine Festival, Student Film Festival and Lego Land will also return as part of the event. From 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday at special festival breakfast will be served at the Senior Center, also at the Shoreline Center.
The Festival is not just about juried art exhibits and professional entertainers, organizers say, it’s about the community making art. One of the goals of the Festival is to provide participatory experiences in all the arts. In addition to dance lessons with the Northwest Irish Dancers and hands-on art activities, Book-It-Theatre will be doing a storytelling workshop for all ages. This year there will be an teen open mic and some new music projects are being planned.
Community members who would like to share their time, talents, and enthusiasm are invited to contact the Arts Council office for volunteer information. There are many jobs to be done before and during the event to make it all a grand success. More than 300 people of all ages worked on the Festival last year.
The festival takes place on the grounds of the Shoreline Center, located at 18560 1st Ave. NE. in Shoreline. Admission is free for the festival; tickets for “Hansel &Gretel” are $5 each. Hours for the festival are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 206 417-4645 for more information or visit www.shorelinearts.net.
