SaratogaArtsFest Center and Gallery Opens Downtown

Date: May 15, 2012
Release: Immediately
Contact: Bob Kimmerle
518-580-5744, bkimmerl@skidmore.edu

SaratogaArtsFest Center and Gallery opens downtown
Public invited to grand opening May 21

A sure sign that SaratogaArtsFest is just around the corner is the opening of the festival’s center and gallery, located each year in downtown Saratoga Springs. As the festival’s headquarters, the center sells festival admissions packages and merchandise, provides ArtsFest information, and exhibits works by featured artists.

This year’s SaratogaArtsFest, scheduled for June 7-10, has opened its headquarters at 38 Van Dam St., in the House of Creative Soul gallery space (the corner of Van Dam St. and Woodlawn Ave.) The center’s grand opening will take place on Monday, May 21, 5-6:30 p.m.

"The grand opening is the best opportunity to explore the gallery exhibits, meet the artists, and get more information about festival events," said Mary Ellen O'Loughlin, executive director of SaratogaArtsFest. "Stop by to get your ARTSPASS admission package and explore the exhibition."

The SaratogaArtsFest Center and Gallery will feature the work of four area artists: Takeyce Walter, Marsha Connell, Phil Scalia, and Jack Metzger.

Walter and Connell are both painters. Walter, who has participated in past ArtsFest exhibitions, will this year focus on small-scale pastel and oil landscapes that showcase the natural beauty of the area. Connell works with oil paint, watercolor, and pastels to create evocative collages and colorful paintings, including abstract representations of landscapes and plant life.

“My paintings are about the spirit of place,” said Connell. “Painting on location, en plein air, in oil, watercolor, or pastel, I observe the place: mood, shapes, color, and spatial relationships. I reflect on how the sense of place affects my own interior landscape.”

Scalia is a commercial photographer and Photoshop artist who layers his own photos with public domain imagery from Wikimedia Commons, creating a blend of disparate elements. Metzger uses found objects—bits and pieces of items he finds during his daily life—to create sculptural assemblages that give new life and meaning to elements that have been discarded.

Said Metzger, “I have collected bits of history. It might be a rusted finial nail from a 19th-century fence post, a broken water jug, or a wooden shovel with old repairs. . .Many of the things I have saved had been broken, lost, discarded, and forgotten, and these eventually become my art.”

As an incentive to visit the center, a free cinch bag with the festival logo will be given away with the first 100 ARTSPASS packages to be purchased or picked up.

SaratogaArtsFest Admission Packages may be purchased at the center or online at www.SaratogaArtsFest. Admissions materials must be picked up at the center. Anyone who received a 2012 ARTSPASS as a gift or bought one early at the promotional rate may bring their ceramic ARTSPASS or certificate to the center to receive a full set of admission materials.

The prices for the admission packages are adults and seniors $35, students (18 and older with student I.D.) $20, military $15, youth (ages 5-17) $5. Children under age 5 are admitted free.

For the center’s hours of operation, visit the Center and Gallery Information page. The center phone number is 518-580-8010.

 

SaratogaArtsFest, now in its sixth year, is a citywide celebration of the arts spanning music, dance, visual art, film, theatre, and literary art. The full festival schedule and program details are available at the ArtsFest web site.

SaratogaArtsFest thanks the Golden Family, owners of 38 Van Dam Street, for the generous donation of gallery and office space for this year’s festival.

 

Sampling from the Gallery