Jun 052018
 

What do the following seven major farms have in common: Clark Farm, Gibney Gardens, Maitland Mountain Farm, Grant Family Farm, Heavens Harvest Farm, Long Hill Orchard, and Wally’s Vegetables? They are the heart of the Salem Farmers’ Market, which returns for its 10th season this Thursday from 3-7pm, at Derby Square on Front Street in Salem, MA

Just as every shopping mall has anchor stores which are the main attractions, so does a successful Farmers’ Market have booths with general appeal items of summer vegetables, such as from the above-mentioned local and regional farms.

“Over the past decade, the Farmers’ Market has truly become a destination for the community – it’s a gathering place as well as an opportunity to get fresh, local produce and other one-of-a-kind goods,” Salem Main Streets Executive Director Kylie Sullivan said, adding that the market typically draws over 2,000 market-goers weekly. “With the great range of vendors that we have, there’s something for everyone at our Farmers’ Market.”

What Will You Find at Salem Farmers’ Market?

For five months every year, the largely volunteer-run market gives residents and tourists alike the opportunity to buy farm-fresh produce, seafood, baked goods, and meats. Also available are an array of specialty foods, bakery products, spices, and non-food vendors. In total this year we have 35 participating vendors!

Exciting new additions (think of them as all the cute and intriguing smaller stores in the mall) to the 2018 market include Fixx Chocolates, Kim Gregory Pure Pastry, Red Antler Apothecary, Root NS, Sustainable Food Solutions, and Zen Bear Foods, along with many other surprises and additions throughout the season.

Every week the market offers live music and representation from different community groups and initiatives.

To celebrate the market’s 10-year anniversary this year, attendees can look forward to limited edition swag, prizes, and special events popping up throughout the season, both at and outside of the market.As in previous years, the Salem Farmers’ Market will continue to take EBT through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.  In compliance with the City of Salem’s plastic bag ordinance, we encourage attendees to bring their own bags – or buy a tote bag at the market to support our work!

The market is made possible through the leadership of Salem Main Streets and the Farmers’ Market Committee, as well as the generous contributions of numerous volunteers.  We are still accepting volunteers to help with weekly set up from 1:30 to 3pm, help at the info table between 3-7pm, and break down help from 6:30 to 7:30pm. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Salem Farmers’ Market.

To get the latest updates about the farmers’ market, visit our website at www.salemfarmersmarket.org, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter .

The Salem Farmers’ Market will be held at Derby Square on Front Street in Salem, MA every Thursday from 3-7pm from June 7th through October 11th, 2018. Mark your calendar. Set aside a basket. And we’ll see you on Thursdays!

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Jun 012018
 
Salem Arts Festival

Performance art. Gallery art. Public art. It all awaits you this weekend, June 1-3 as the family-friendly Salem Arts Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary. And you are a most welcome guest!!!

“It’s hard to believe how far this festival has come in 10 years. So much conscious work and collaboration across organizations and disciplines has been done over the years to create a one-of-a-kind event, truly unique to Salem,” says Kylie Sullivan, Executive Director of Salem Main Streets (SMS), the community non-profit that founded the Festival.

The Salem Arts Festival kicks off with an opening reception at Salem’s Old Town Hall on Friday, June 1st at 6 p.m.  The free event allows visitors to enjoy beautiful art work in the juried gallery while being entertained by renowned local and regional performers Betsy Miller Dance Projects, High Meadow Howlers, Samba Viva, and headliners Los Sugar Kings.

Over the weekend, this free celebration of arts, culture, creativity and community will feature over 200 artists and performers, and includes a variety of art, music, dance, and theatre performances. Public activities include onsite art-making for all ages, local artist vendors selling their creations, a juried art exhibition and a community-built public art installation.

Arts Festival Locations

The Salem Arts Festival takes place in the heart of Salem at a variety of indoor and outdoor venues. Primary locations include Old Town Hall, Derby Square, Front Street, and Artists’ Row.  A Juried Art Show, sponsored by Peabody Essex Museum will be held in Old Town Hall throughout the festival, with an artist street fair in the area around the building on Saturday and Sunday

Live performances will take place (weather permitting) on Derby Square and Front Street.  The event is rain or shine; in the event of inclement weather, performances will be moved into Old Town Hall and Front Street Coffeehouse.

This year, Creative Collective, a locally based creative organization that connects creativity, community and commerce joins SMS as Salem Arts Festival organizer, founder and Chief Creative Officer John Andrews says “Partnering with Salem Main Streets made so much sense to the collective, and as we watch the growth of the creative economy and learn more every day how important support of the arts and culture are to healthy, safe and vibrant communities we are honored to be partnering with and fostering the 10th anniversary of the festival.”

One of the most anticipated events this year is Bee to Brick, our fifth collaborative public art project, this year led by Salem artists Kate Babcock and Jen Platt. Bee to Brick will install playful swarms of several hundred “bees” around the festival area, created entirely out of recycled plastic bottles and other reusable plastic pollution.

Over the past few months, community groups and locals of all ages have created hundreds of bees in an effort to increase awareness of the critical role pollinators play in sustaining our ecosystem. After the project, the bees will be transformed to “bricks” that will be used be students from the Phoenix School for their “Bottle Brick Project.”

The Salem Arts Festival also celebrates the third annual “Mural Slam” on Artists’ Row this year, organized by the City of Salem’s Public Art Commission and Public Art Planner Deborah Greel. Murals will be painted throughout the weekend by 10 selected artists and will be completed by the end of the festival. The murals will remain to bring vibrancy to Downtown Salem throughout the year.

The goal of the Salem Arts Festival is to promote all the arts in Salem and to provide the entire North Shore arts community with an opportunity to showcase their talents. SAF is organized by Salem Main Streets, the Creative Collective, and a collaboration of Salem organizations, including the City of Salem, Salem State University, Salem Food Tours, the Phoenix School, Salem Public Space Project, the Salem YMCA, Peabody Essex Museum, and the Salem Arts Association.

The Salem Arts Festival is supported in part by a grant from the Salem Cultural Council and an additional grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Support for the annual Fest Fundraiser was provided by Salem Five Bank and by the gracious support of its other creative partners, including Retonica Event Lighting, The Scarlet Letter Press, and Octocog Marketing and Design.

Visitors interested in attending the Salem Arts Festival can find easy access to the downtown by public transportation or parking at one of the many downtown lots in the City. For more information and for the full festival schedule, please visit www.salemartsfestival.com.

A special thanks to over 30 businesses that supported the 10th anniversary of the festival through financial support and other means, the list of supporters can be found on the festival website.

Winner of Best Arts Festival in the 2017 Best of the North Shore (BONS) awards, the Salem Arts Festival strives to showcase and support as many artists, creatives and performers as possible on an annual basis and throughout the year.

We hope to see you join the celebration this weekend in Salem Ma!

 

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May 102018
 

Volunteering is an art. It is a creative gift that you give to your community. And what better gift to give to the Salem community than to be a volunteer at the upcoming Salem Arts Festival,  June 1-3. It is a great combination!

This year is promising to be better than ever, with our TENTH ANNIVERSARY, record-breaking number of participants, all types/styles of art-making activities, a new collaboration with Creative Collective/Creative North Shore as co-organizers, and our fifth annual community art project, Bee to Brick. Come BEE a part of the best arts festival on the North Shore (possibly beyond? who’s to say.)!

With more activities than ever, we also need more volunteers than ever. We will probably be adding some additional shifts and needs as the festival gets closer, but for now, sign up early and often.

PLEASE SIGN UP HERE – http://signup.com/go/HpiioHC

Please note that we welcome and encourage volunteers of all ages for Salem Arts Festival. In fact… 10-year olds have been some of our best volunteers in the past! Never too early to instill in young people the value— their value— in community volunteering. This is also a great way for new residents to become part of our community, so spread the word to anyone you know who’s just moved to town.

Don’t forget to share the call for volunteers with your friends, family, neighbors, and that guy you sit next to on the train every day!

Save the Date – we will have an orientation for volunteers on Sunday, May 27 at 5 pm at Old Town Hall for any who can attend (yes, sorry, it’s Memorial Day weekend). We are also holding a benefit night for the Salem Arts Festival at Flatbread Pizza on Tuesday, May 29, so give your oven a rest that night and come grab a pie to support the festival!

Volunteerism improves health by strengthening the body, improving mood, and lessening stress in participants. And don’t forget, seeing art is also  a soothing experience.

Questions? Interested in additional ways to help? Let Kylie Sullivan, our overworked but ever-smiling leader know! Call 978-744-0004  x115.

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Apr 102018
 

 “Creativity takes courage.”Henri Matisse

“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” – Albert Einstein

Art has stood the test of time as an expression of the times within which it was born. As the World Art Day celebration approaches on April 15th, here in Salem we look ahead to our own celebration of expression with the Salem Arts Festival, scheduled June 1-3, 2018.

For World Art Day, galleries and museums throughout the world are encouraged to have extended hours, hold conferences and panel discussions during the day, and host celebratory events in the evening. April 15th is the birthday of Leonardo da Vinci, a renowned painter, sculptor, writer, innovator, philosopher, and thinker.

Salem Arts Festival

Over 5,000 people regularly attend and take part in our family-friendly festival, transforming downtown Salem, MA into an opportunity for the arts community to showcase a wide range of talents, not dissimilar to DaVinci. The Salem Arts Festival includes a gallery of juried artists’ work in Old Town Hall, outdoor stage venues for performance and dance, an artist and artisan street fair, a collaborative public arts project, and much more!

“Salem is busting at the seams with visual artists, musicians, poets, dancers, makers, and creative individuals of all types. It’s one of the many reasons people love living and visiting here,” said Kylie Sullivan, Executive Director of Salem Main Streets, co-organizer of the Salem Arts Festival.

“In celebration of our 10-year anniversary, we will focus the festival around the Salem Main Streets themes of ‘Live, Work, Play.’ I’m very excited to see the different ways we can use the arts to explore what it means to live, work, and play in Salem.”

For the 5th year, a community-built public art installation is being included as part of the festival. Bee to Brick, this year’s community art project, embraces the “Live, Work, Play” theme by celebrating some of the hardest “working” bugs out there – pollinators! Bee to Brick will install playful swarms of several hundred “bees” around the festival area, created entirely out of recycled plastic bottles and other reusable plastic pollution. After the project, the bees will be transformed into “bricks” by Phoenix School students for their “Bottle Brick Project.”

Community groups are being sought who want to participate in a workshop, and/or individuals who can come to one of our Monday night workshops. All ages and abilities are enthusiastically encouraged to contribute, no skill set required. More information at www.salemartsfestival.com/bee-to-brick

The Salem Arts Festival is especially pleased to announce that the festival, initially run as a project of Salem Main Streets, has expanded this year to be run in collaboration with the Creative Collective.

The Creative Collective is a group of invested creative professionals with the mission of connecting creativity, community and commerce. John Andrews, Creative Director, shared his thoughts about this partnership. “I am very excited to partner on another project with Salem Main Streets and expand the impact that the festival has on Salem and support the over 100 artists, performers, artisan vendors, and creatives that participate in this dynamic event.”

The Salem Arts Festival is organized by Salem Main Streets, the Creative Collective and a collaboration of Salem organizations which provide support for the festival, including the City of Salem, Salem State University, Salem Food Tours, the Phoenix School, Salem Public Space Project, the Salem YMCA, Peabody Essex Museum, and the Salem Arts Association.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Salem Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. The festival also relies on the gracious support of its other creative partners, including Retonica Event Lighting, The Scarlet Letter Press, and Octocog Marketing and Design.

If you would like to support this dynamic annual cultural mainstay for its 10th anniversary celebration, please contact Robyn Gianoppolo at robyn@creativesalem.com or visit salemartsfestival.com/support

For more information about the Salem Arts Festival, please see www.salemartsfestival.com or contact Kylie Sullivan at kylie@salemmainstreets.org or (978)744-0004 (x115)

(All photos from 2017 Salem Arts Festival, Facebook page)

 

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Dec 302017
 

The family-friendly count down to the New Year, known as LAUNCH! is gearing up for a great party in Salem, this Sunday, Dec. 31 from 4 pm to 6 pm at Old Town Hall on Derby Square.

Programming will include hat making, face painting, a photo booth, and more!  There will be an early countdown just before 6 pm. Ring in the New Year with family members that can’t or don’t want to stay up ‘til midnight

“When we organized LAUNCH! for the first time a few years ago, it was immediately clear that there was a strong community desire to come together on New Year’s Eve,” states Kylie Sullivan, Salem Main Streets’ Executive Director. “Plus, there’s still plenty of time after our early countdown to get to your own party, or catch one of the many other great events happening all over town on New Year’s Eve!”

New Year’s Eve Stats

History.com and Column Five put together a very interesting “New Year’s by the numbers” Infographic from which we pulled these figures.

  • Each New Year’s Eve, one million people gather in NYC Times Square to watch the famous ball drop.
  • Closed to one billion people around the word watch the festivities on TV.
  • And 22% of adults admit they fall asleep before midnight!

No falling asleep at our New Year’s alternative event, which is in its 5th year and produced again by Salem Main Streets and the City of Salem.

This event is free to all and family-friendly, with a $5 suggested donation to help support Salem Main Streets’ “Holiday Happenings” initiatives, including Santa’s Arrival at the Hawthorne, the Tree Lighting, and the wreaths and ribbons around the downtown district. LAUNCH! is also made possible thanks to our Salem Main Streets volunteers and the continued involvement of our partners at Creative Salem and the Phoenix School.

So, bring friends, co-workers and bring the kids to say goodbye to 2017 and hello 2018, this Sunday at Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Sq. in Salem.

 

 

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