Folks gather to listen to live music during the 8th annual ArtSpring Festival in Davis and Thomas during the Memorial Day Weekend. The event featured all things art and celebrates the arts in Tucker County. Pam Roberts and Diana Vera are one of more than 10 groups to take the stage during the ArtSpring Festival.
DAVIS – This weekend, Tucker County welcomed artists and art enthusiasts to take part in the 8th Annual ArtSpring Festival – Tucker County’s Annual Memorial Day celebration of the arts – which featured tours, showcases, exhibitions and celebrations of all the arts in the area. Erika May, Program Coordinator and Marketing Director for ArtSpring, said the festival is a way to showcase the arts in Tucker County.
“There are visual artists and music artists are showcased and this is the first year we are putting on this festival as a non-profit organization,” May said. “We were under the umbrella of the Alpine Heritage Preservation before.”
May said during the year, ArtSpring helps artists.
“One of the highlights of this year’s festival will be the unveiling of a of public art on Sunday,” May said. “We partnered with New Historic Thomas for this art. There were two artists selected to create the public art and both are from Tucker County. There was a $10,000 grant for the public art and we could not narrow it down between the two, so we selected both and upped the grant to $12,000. The two artists picked to create the public art are Nathan Baker and Nellie Rose.”
May said the core of ArtSpring’s mission is to help serve Tucker County artists.
“We are really thrilled to have such an amazing community of artists living and working here,” May said.
Events during the weekend included a Thomas Art Crawl and Art Block Party, a guided tour of Cortland Acres photography exhibition, tours of Cottrill’s Opera House, an artist market in Davis, live music in Davis, music at The Purple Fiddle, kid’s activities, face painting, a silent auction, a lantern parade, a poet walk, a craft beer tour and a solar system tour led by Ted Hodson of the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Community partners, local ArtSpaces and sponsors of the 2017 ArtSpring Festival include St. George Medical Clinic, Mountain Top Realty and Rentals, the Highland Market, Black Bear Resort, Canaan Valley Resort & Conference Center, Wicked Wilderness Pub and Parlor, Timberline Four Seasons Resort, Atlantic Broadband, Barrels Brewhouse, Best of Canaan, The Billy Motel, Bright Morning Inn, Cooper House, Grant County Bank, Mountain State Brewing Company, The Purple Fiddle, United Financial, Ben’s Old Loom Barn, Buxton & Landstreet, Creature, Lamplight Gallery, The Studio Gallery, The White Room, WVHighlands Gallery, Pet Rated, Q&A Associates, BFS, Landis, Miners & Merchants Bank and Siriannis.
Craft Beer our Sponsors include Barrels Brewhouse, The Billy Motel, Blackwater Brewing Co., Mountain State Brewing Co., Stumptown Ales and Tip Top.
Additional information is available online at artspringwv.com.
