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Celebration! A Look at the Art of the Festival

American Artscape | 2011 No. 3
NEA Arts cover no 3 2011
FloydFest's Dreaming Creek Main Stage, constructed with the help of local Virginia timber framing companies, hosts an evening set by former Band member Levon Helm. Photo by Roger Gupta
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About this Issue

"This is who we are. Every year when I come to the festival I want to say, 'City of Houston, look around you, this is who we are.'" In this quote from the NEA research report Live from Your Neighborhood: A National Study of Outdoor Arts Festivals, a volunteer was talking about the Houston International Festival, but he could have been talking about any arts festival. The report demonstrated that festivals are very important to local communities, providing a place where segments of the community that may not regularly interact can gather and celebrate together. Not only that, but festivals generate a sense of pride for local arts and culture. That's not all that's generated: festivals contribute to the local economies, stimulating local tourism industries.

The most important role the festivals play, though, may be how the festivals transform their communities. Both FloydFest and the Telluride Film Festival have changed sleepy towns into internationally renowned arts destinations. Atlanta's National Black Arts Festival shows how a festival showcasing one ethnic group can elevate the city as a whole artistically, and the Berkshires -- host to numerous theater and other festivals -- demonstrates how place and community can support festivals as much as festivals support place and community. And festivals do support community, as Chicago's Printers Row Lit Fest shows, where an unlikely festival (do people still read books?) helped to rejuvenate a dying neighborhood in the city.

Included in this Issue

 Local vendors include locally sourced food, regional jewelers, potters, woodworkers, clothiers, and fine artists

A Place Out of Time

Virginia's FloydFest Is Where the Magic Pops
Man standing outdoors in front of a banner

Small But Mighty

Celebrating the Movies at Colorado's Telluride Film Festival
Woman standing outdoors at a festival holding a decorative umbrella.

A Homegrown Affair

Atlanta's National Black Arts Festival
Crowd sitting on lawn for play.

The Community's the Thing

The Importance of the Summer Theater Festivals to the Berkshires
People perusing books in tents.

Reading in Sunshine

Chicago's Printers Row Lit Fest
Black women dancers standing on the stairs of a porch.

Shaping New Forms

A Conversation with Vershawn Sanders of Red Clay Dance
Crowds of people walking down the street and looking into various white tents lined up along the curb; an old church in the background.

Grounded in the Old

Santa Fe's Spanish Market
People standing in a line in front of old brick buildings with green awnings to get tickets to a movie.

Small but Mighty, Part 2

Jeffrey Middents and Justin Lerner on the Telluride Film Festival
Musician Bruce Springsteen laughs as he reacts to poet Robert Pinsky and author Wesley Stace on stage at the Words and Music Festival, 2010.  The backdrop is a WAMFEST poster with images of participating artists.

The Words and Music Festival: WAMFest

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