The Shoreline Arts Festival opens Saturday, June 27 for a two day celebration of community arts.
This year, the Festival’s theme, “Weaving a Cultural Tapestry,” features the arts and heritage of many local cultural groups.
A diverse range of music, dance, theater, and all of the visual arts are included in the festival, which takes place on the grounds of the Shoreline Center.
Performing artists on the Shoreline Room Stage this weekend include Rhys Thomas and Jugglemania, the Shoreline Senior Singers, Baile Glas Irish Dancers, Filipiniana Dancers, Deaf Dancers, Melody Institute Chinese Dance, Hokulani’s Hula Studio &the Kupunas, Eclectic Cloggers (Appalachian Folkdance), Lakota traditional music by Cindy Minkler and Rhythms of India dancers.
Festival attendees can explore the Juried Art Shows and the booths in the Artists Marketplace. Adjacent to the offerings of the Food Court, the Showmobile Stage features popular bands and danceable music with acts like the steel drums of Panduo, blues with the Dented Trucks, Spirit of Ojah’s African rhythms and funk, rock ‘n roll classics with Timeslip, the indie pop rock of Kris Orlowski and lively Latin music with Cocoloco.
Art projects in the popular Children’s Hands-on Art Arena will relate to the theme this year. Again this year, the Northwest Collage Society will sponsor an exhibit and collage making workshop using recycled materials. The winning poems from the Second Annual Poetry Month Contest will be posted in Poetry Hall. The Festival Breakfast will be held at the Shoreline Senior Center both days from 8:30 a.m. to noon. The Community Rhythm Jam will return on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Shoreline Auditorium will feature local children performing Missoula Children’s Theatre’s production of “The Princess and the Pea” at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Tickets are $6 and can be purchased at the door. Admission is free to all other events at the festival.
In keeping with the Weaving a Cultural Tapestry theme this year the cultural rooms have been expanded to include a Pacific Islands exhibit. The Chinese Cultural Room returns as well as the 12th Annual Philippine Festival.
As part of the festival’s theme, Seattle artist Marita Dingus has been selected to oversee the collaborative onsite creation of a “cultural tapestry” that will be installed later in a public venue in Shoreline. Festival attendees are invited to contribute their artistic skills to the installation.”One of my favorite ways of making art is to use existing materials and reconfigure them into a new piece of art. This project would give me the opportunity to do just that” Dingus said. “I will bring in materials like copper, wire and fabric and assist the community in creating imagery for the final artwork. We will then construct the art and arrange the pieces into a pattern. Finally, I will assemble the artwork, perhaps creating and enhancing elements such as a border to unify the various components into a single piece of art.”
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