You can channel your inner artist and create everything from piñatas and masks to watercolor paintings June 20 at the inaugural ARTreach festival, a free day of live music, arts demonstrations, exhibits and hands-on activities in Columbia’s Long Reach Village Center.
The new outdoor festival is for all ages and will “run the gamut with all different kinds of art forms,” says Coleen West, executive director of the Howard County Arts Council.
Among the more than 25 artists and groups scheduled to appear are: The Washington Calligraphers Guild demonstrating calligraphy; Columbia resident Evelyn Mogren demonstrating wood sculpting with a chainsaw; Columbia resident Yolanda Koh demonstrating Chinese brush painting; and Baltimore-based Beale Street Puppets holding puppet shows and puppet-making workshops.
“We’ll have two stages with music and roving performers like stilt walkers, face painters and bubble artists,” West says.
Organizers, including Celebration Church, the Columbia Association, the Columbia Art Center, Columbia Festival of the Arts, Howard County, the arts council and Long Reach Community Association, began planning the festival in 2014 as a result of the county’s efforts to revitalize the 40-year-old village center, West says.
In recent years, Long Reach Village Center has struggled with high retail vacancy rates, trash and crime. In 2013, the County Council passed legislation labeling the center a blight zone, allowing the county to purchase most of the property from majority owner Long Reach Village Associates LLC.
This month and in September, the county will hold public forums so residents can discuss the center’s eventual urban renewal plan.
In the meantime, the arts festival is a way to engage community members from Long Reach and beyond, says Sarah Uphouse, Village of Long Reach administrator.
“It’s really nice to infuse some life back into the village center,” she says. “We’re really looking to show it once again will become a vibrant part of the village.”