ARTS CELEBRATION
11th annual event set for this weekend at Saratoga Spa State Park
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Festivalgoers will celebrate fine art this weekend at the 11th annual Saratoga Arts Celebration.
This juried arts and crafts festival, now more than a decade old tradition, is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday on the great lawn and inside the galleries of the National Museum of Dance, located at 99 S. Broadway within the Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs.
The Saratoga Arts Celebration offers a selection of original paintings, photography, drawings, prints, sculptures, mixed media, jewelry, ceramics, fiber, metal and glass pieces available in every
price point.
“I feel very excited about the quality showcase of artists we have with us this year,” said festival director Sue Brown Gordon. “Each of the juried exhibitors bring a unique approach and voice to their art forms. We choreograph the show to represent many different styles from contemporary sculpture by Joe Sorge to photorealistic charcoal drawings by Siobhan Stanton, which are just amazing. Jewelry and wearables are an especially strong category this year featuring both affordable art jewelry to high carat gold and one of a kind gemstone designs.”
Held during the height of the tourism season in Saratoga Springs, the rain or shine Saratoga Arts Celebration typically attracts hundreds of art-lovers from near and far.
Attendees will have the opportunity to browse and buy handmade work by more than 75 national and regional artists, who will be on site for the event.
All artists are willing to elaborate on their creative process and share their stories. “These artists are offering an opportunity to learn about what they do first hand,” Brown Gordon said. “They teach and share their process through demonstrations and storyboards. I consider it an important part of a museum show, to inspire and educate both young and young at heart.”
The exhibiting artists invited to participate are some of the top award winning creatives in the country, Brown Gordon said in a press release. “Working with these talented people brings me such inspiration and motivation to make the Saratoga Arts Celebration the best Arts event possible.”
Currently the festival is ranked nationally as one of the top fine art festivals in the country by artists in both Sunshine Artist Magazine and The ArtFair Sourcebook.
The festival will also feature special art activities for children such as a mobile sculpture making project with Karen Lyons and the chance to paint a car provided by Saratoga Motors as part of a hands-on community mural project.
The upcoming festival will include live music from Ubuntu and dance performances on both days, and a variety of catered food temptations.
Now celebrating its eleventh anniversary, the festival started with the support of the Swyer family who originally founded the National Museum of Dance. A chance conversation with a patron at an event in Connecticut landed the special partnership between the museum and the festival organizer. “Susan Earle, of the Swyer family, asked me when I would start a festival in Saratoga,” Brown Gordon said in the release. “When I told her there was only one place I could envision it happening, I had no idea I was telling someone who had a direct personal link to the Dance Museum and the rest is divine intervention.”
Today, Brown Gordon organizes two events there, the annual summer art festival and the Holiday Art Fair, which is scheduled for Nov. 16 and 17 this year.
During these events, the museum’s exhibits are open for visitors to enjoy.
Admission to the Saratoga Arts Celebration is free and ample free parking will be available.
More information about the 2019 Saratoga Arts Celebration is available online at SaratogaArtsCelebration.org or GordonFineArts.org.