8th Annual Salem Arts Festival To Feature Over 80 Artists & Performers

 History, Salem Event, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping, SMS News  No Responses »
Jun 022016
 

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As Arts Festivals go, we think ours is a big deal. So much so that the Salem Arts Festival is not a one day experience but a 3-day extravaganza of culture, June 3-5th. What else would you call the intersection of over 80 artists and performers with a variety of art, music, dance, and theatre performances. The family-friendly festival also includes art-making for all ages, artisan vendors selling their creations, and a temporary public art installation.

And yes, something this big can’t be housed in one spot.

The Salem Arts Festival is spread out at a variety of venues in downtown Salem, with the primary focus on Old Town Hall, Derby Square, Front Street, and Artists’ Row. A Juried Art Show will be held in Old Town Hall throughout the festival, with an artisan street fair in the area around the building on Saturday and Sunday. Live performances this year will mostly be held outside (weather permitting) on Derby Square and Artists’ Row. The event is rain or shine, with a rain location for performances held upstairs at Old Town Hall and at 217 Essex Street (formerly “The Gathering”).

Full schedule and programs will be available on site during the festival, as well as the Festival website.

“I’m probably prouder of this event than any other Salem Main Streets initiative, because there’s been such tremendous collaboration between so many local groups and individuals to continue to improve and expand the festival every year.  I can’t wait to share the phenomenal energy and talent that will be on display this year,” says Kylie Sullivan, Executive Director of Salem Main Streets (SMS), the community non-profit organization which started the Festival.

The Salem Arts Festival kicks off with an opening reception at Salem’s Old Town Hall on Friday, June 3rd at 6pm.  The free event allows visitors to enjoy beautiful art work while being entertained by renowned local and regional performers North Shore Chamber Music, Gretchen and the Pickpockets, Siren of the Circle, and headliners Picante Soul.

In addition this year, Friday night will also serve as the grant reception for the Salem Cultural Council’s FY16 grantees.

One of the most anticipated events this year is “Move With Me”, a collaborative public art project led by artist and architect Claudia Paraschiv, featuring an installation of pinwheels over Front Street. During the past few months, community groups and locals of all ages and abilities have decorated several hundred individual pinwheels made of reclaimed sailcloth, drawing their own interpretations of traditional textile patterns from different cultures around the world.

This year, the Salem Arts Festival also celebrates the very first “Mural Slam” on Artists’ Row, organized by the City of Salem’s Public Art Commission and Public Art Planner Deborah Greel. Murals will be painted throughout the weekend by 12 selected artists and will be completed by the end of the festival. In addition, the Festival marks the return of vendors to Artists’ Row, with both new and returning tenants for the 2016 season.

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. The Festival is run in collaboration with Salem Main Streets by a team of dedicated volunteers, including representatives from Creative Salem, Salem State University, the Peabody Essex Museum, and many more.

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, please visit www.salemartsfestival.com

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FOLI: Rhythm You Not Only Hear & Feel, But Also See

 History, Salem Event  No Responses »
May 252016
 

Foli-WP-landscapeThere are many ways to experience other cultures. Literature. Food. Art. CinemaSalem brings us a unique look at the West African Mali tribe with FOLI: Rhythm of African Life for a live show this Thursday, May 26th at 8:30pm

Yes, LIVE.

It is part light show, part dance celebration, and part music extravaganza.

Paul Van Ness of CinemaSalem offered a behind the scenes look “I got to see it for myself at a late-night dress rehearsal, and it’s a spectacular show! It’s completely entertaining, even mesmerizing, but while you’re being entertained you’re learning about West African cultural history and about the connections and individuals who play a role in forming Malian communities.”

He further explains. “Over the course of the performance, you’re introduced to the dances which are used by people in Mali to observe and celebrate important passages over a lifetime, so by the end, you feel like you’ve just watched a movie.”

The stages (birth, growth, maturity, transition and transcendence) mark the progression of an African’s life from the birth of a person to the growth of an individual to the maturation of an adult to the selection of a family to a role in the community to a life remembered.

Directed and conceived by Gregory Coles, this event is presented by CinemaSalem and Creative Salem. Tickets are still available; seating for this special live performance event is on a reserved basis.

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Creative Living Workspace Returns To Salem: Artists’ Row

 Salem Event, Salem Shopping  No Responses »
May 212016
 

Artists' RowWhat is so unique & challenging about the small stretch of land known as Artists’ Row at 24 New Derby St. is that each of the four creative storefront owners design, make and sell their wares right there. Even before your eyes. That is what makes Artists’ Row so special. And it is now open.

Originally built as a market place, this pedestrian walkway is intersected by Front St. on one side and New Derby St. on the other. It is across from Town Hall.

The Public Art Commission, working with Deborah Greel, the Public Art Planner, have this year invited the following “Creative Entrepreneurs” to create handcrafted items including pottery, fabric arts, glass art, and wood turned products in their retail/maker spaces.

  • Boston Woodturning creates one-of-a-kind handcrafted fine art, as well as usable utilitarian pieces, from a variety of local wood. Discover demonstrations in Woodturning and various workshops throughout the season in the working studio. Learn and observe the process of Woodturning or book a lesson. In the gallery space find practical and sculptural works of art created from wood.
  • Ceramics by Sibel is the working pottery studio & gallery of Sibel Alpaslan. Sibel is a Turkish ceramic artist who loves the organic feeling of clay, knowing that it comes from the earth. Lately, she has been focusing on creating amphora, vases, and covered dishes that are inspired by ancient forms, and then combining them with modern whimsical surprises. Sibel will also host pottery wheel demonstrations and workshops.
  • Grace and Diggs founder Linda Joy Mullen, while an architect, has always loved to sew, knit, draw, and glue things together.  Architecture has been a study in building big things, while Grace and Diggs became an outlet to make little things. From paper-bag hats and burlap wreaths, to aprons and throw-pillows, Grace and Diggs’ workshops and pre-made works invite the public to experiment in design of small things.
  • Kay’s Stained Glass Studio is the locally owned and operated glass studio of Kay and Aleksandra Nowak with a mission to create high quality original glass products. With years of experience in stained glass industry, Kay’s Stained Glass Studio offers unique designs and quality craftsmanship with great attention to details. Their work can be seen in various locations throughout Europe as well as the United States. They also provide many services for their customers including consultation, design, restoration, renovation, repair, and fabrication.

As an added extra, joining Sibel in her stall is Karen Scalia of Salem Food Tours. With a passion for fresh local foods and cooking, and a background in event planning as well as the performing arts Karen knew that sharing Salem’s past with a ‘taste’ of the culinary present was the perfect way to understand and appreciate this much-loved city. Take a tour with Karen and learn more about the local food scene in Salem!

This year the creative entrepreneurs are also participating in “Watch Art Grow on the Row” bringing an educational component to Artists’ Row. The artisans will host classes in ceramics, woodturning, hat and wreath making, demonstrations and fine art classes for adults and children. Please contact the individual artisans for their class, workshop and demonstration schedules.

Artists’ Row is a seasonal program (end of May to beginning of November) that provides space for artisans interested in building their audience through daily engagement with residents and visitors to Salem. Artists’ Row is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday, noon – 6pm and Thursdays, 11am – 7pm.

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Soul, Blues and Funk Mix at Salem Jazz & Soul Festival’s 10th Year

 History, Salem Event, Salem Festivals, Volunteer Opportunities  No Responses »
May 082016
 

Ten years of down beats, up beats, rhythm and horns will be celebrated this year as the Salem Jazz & Soul Festival kicks off its Berklee Summer Series May 14th in Salem’s Derby Square.

The spacious, open air ambiance of Derby Square lends itself so well to the diverse live funk, soul, blues and jazz music performances scheduled this year.

By offering this series of annual free concerts, concluding with the main festival at the Willows (the third weekend in August), The Salem Jazz and Soul Festival is “recreating and renewing the vibrant jazz scene that began in the early 20th century, when Duke Ellington and other musicians from the Big Band era played at the seaside park.”

May 14th Performers

MIXCLA, a trio consisting of students from the Berklee College of Music, will play at the first SJSF/Berklee Summer Series concert.

MIXCLA is a play on words between mezcla (which means mixture) and mix.

MIXLASJSF describes it in this way “It is a merging of cultures hailed from the mountains of Chile, to the traditions of Japan, which driven by the fires of Cuba achieve a truly unique Latin jazz experience.”

Sounds interesting.

MIXCLA is led by composer/pianist and singer Zahili Gonzalez Zamora, with Gerson Esteban Lazo Quiroga on bass and backing vocals, and Takafumi Nikaido on percussion. You would expect that this mixture of cultural spices to cook up the perfect recipe for one of a kind musical experience.

Zahili Gonzalez Zamora, explains, “We are truly excited to be a part of the Salem Jazz & Soul Festival Berklee Summer Series; it is another opportunity to share our love and passion for music.

We are three individuals from three different parts of the world, yet, we found each other at Berklee and came together as a musical family with one common thing in mind, we love Cuban music.

I am bias of course. But Gerson? All the way from Chile, he pretty much self taught himself music and ended up avidly listening and falling in love with Cuban music. He began transcribing his favorite bass players, especially Alain Perez, a bass virtuoso from Cuba. Then Taka? He has already been to Cuba twice, studied with the Masters of Percussion and actually won a prize in Cuba’s most important Festival Del Tambor.

When I found them, I said to myself, these are my brothers. I cannot let them go. I feel at home when we are playing, and their faces tell me they feel the same, and it gets better and better. So now, I’m just really happy that we get to share what we have with the crowd of the Salem Jazz & Soul Festival.

Plus, we get to represent our school, which is also an honor.”

Three more SJSF/Berklee Summer Series concerts will take place this year: Maddie Jay & the pH Collective on June 11; Selah Poitier on July 9; and RickExpress on Aug. 13.

The 10th-annual Salem Jazz and Soul Festival will follow at The Willows during the weekend of Aug. 20-21, featuring 10 bands, a kids’ tent, music-education tent, artisan fair and 21-plus beer pavilion. The two-day concert is free.

The festival is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization that produces free concerts and raises money for music education causes on the North Shore.

For up-to-date information, check out the Salem Jazz & Soul Festival Facebook page.

 

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Poetry in Motion Being Showcased in Salem

 Salem Event, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping  No Responses »
Apr 292016
 

MPF16+BannerWe understand, you worked on Friday and missed the first day of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. But fear not, ’tis more than one day in length. It will be shared among attendees on Saturday and Sunday of this weekend!

Here are a couple of links you might want to keep handy when you arrive. There is a lot going on, so be prepared to make some choices.

Not only are there many, many speakers. But they are also quite a diverse group.

Another interesting twist on a poetry festival is The Small Press and Literary Fair which takes place outside of the Peabody Essex Museum on Saturday. You will most likely find materials from literary journals, library organizations, university libraries and academic programs. Venues

And just where does this grand festival take place in Salem? Perhaps ask where it is not. Seriously…

  • Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St.
  • Salem Five Community Room, 210 Essex St.
  • Hawthorne Hotel, 18 Washington Square, W.
  • Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square
  • New Liberty Charter School, Museum Place Mall, 1 E. India Square Mall
  • The Bridge at 211, 211 Bridge St.
  • Howling Wolf, 76 Lafayette St.

For a larger version of map go to  www.masspoetry.org/venues-2016.

According to the Festival website “We encourage those who have the means, to add a donation to their button purchase to help us continue to offer the festival experience at a low price.”

It is a worthy cause.

Roger Housden, author and public speaker, has said in an edition of the Huffington Post “Poetry at its best calls forth our deep being. It dares us to break free from the safe strategies of the cautious mind; it calls to us, like the wild geese, as Mary Oliver would say, from an open sky. It is a magical art, and always has been — a making of language spells designed to open our eyes, open our doors and welcome us into a bigger world, one of possibilities we may never have dared to dream of.”

But this weekend you may dare dream and experience. Visit Salem and you will hear and see poetry come alive at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival.

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