Downtown Saturday offers a little bit of everything on Broad
Unveiling the Keys to Rome public art project leads off a day of art, food and music on Broad Street.
The first Downtown Saturday brought together tastes of the world’s cuisine, public piano performances and the offerings of artists as Broad Street played host to a slew of events.
From the International Festival to the Rome Area Council for the Arts Ellen Axson Wilson Art Walk, Saturday brought to Broad just about everything a community can offer when it comes together.
Early in the morning, five pianos were placed at intersections in downtown
and the River District as part of the Keys to Rome public art project.
And beyond the initial strangeness of seeing colorfully painted or decorated musical instruments in public spaces, both kids and adults took to striking the keys before crowds of onlookers.
Piano teachers Kyla Zollitsch, Shelley Reid and Kathryn Nobles had around 50 students come down to the Town Green to take turns working through songs with family members around them. Zollitsch said it was good practice for an upcoming recital where the kids will play for a judge.
Zollitsch is familiar with the art project’s concept and the positive impact it has, as something similar was done in Portland, where she’s from, with Piano Push Play.
Leigh Lundy said “this is so cool, we just love it,” as her 13-year-old daughter Grace Ann Lundy, a student of Zollitsch’s, tried her hand on the piano in the Cotton Block. The designs on the pianos were enough to inspire Leigh Lundy to contemplate having one of the artists enliven the grand piano at her home.
Later in the day, the International Festival got rolling and included traditional Indian dance and a variety of food from countries like Germany, Zimbabwe and Kurdistan.
Thomas Kislat, a German native and the sales and marketing coordinator at the Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau, cooked up bratwursts on a charcoal grill while decked out in lederhosen — knee-length leather shorts with suspenders commonly worn by inhabitants of Bavaria. He joked that people like to believe it’s a style of clothing commonly worn in Germany, but that’s not the case.
“People obviously don’t wear it to work,” he said.
In between dodging flames being whipped up from gusts of wind, Kislat explained the types of German sausages are specific to the region they come from. His booth served up sampler platters of bratwursts with potato salad, sauerkraut and pickled radishes.
Even though he left Germany so his wife, Shannon Kislat, could be closer to home, he said Rome reminds of him of European towns, as he can easily walk home and to downtown, and it helps with quelling the homesickness.
The Chalk Your Heart Out event called on competing teams to create the most eye-catching mural to win the $100 grand prize, which will be donated to the charity of their choice.
The Rome Rollerettes, a youth roller derby team, were out in force drawing up chalk puppies, hoping to take home the second annual event’s prize for another year and donate money to PAWS — Public Animal Welfare Services. It’s an activity that’s far from the aggressive,
full-contact sport the girls love, despite the numerous scrapes and bruises they endure.
Rollerette Angel Cawthon, also known by her derby name of Hardly Angel, said the physical nature of the woman-empowering sport is the best part.
One of the other attractions Saturday was the BeeShees’ booth, which gave those passing by an up-close look at recently caught Italian honey bees.
Andi Beyer said she and the other female beekeepers will come out and catch swarms, as long as the hive is reachable and the bees haven’t been exposed to pesticides. It’s an adrenaline rush, she said, every time they go out and retrieve hives, with thousands of stinging bees racing around them.
Saturday was also another opportunity for the group of girlfriends to remind those stopping by of the importance of bees to human existence, which is something they educate others on by holding classes — some will start next month.
For more information on the classes or help with a swarm, call Beyer at 706-767-0337.