festivals – Page 16 – Salem Main Streets

Thursday, Salem Farmers Market and You!

Jun 132014

You missed it didn’t you? Admit it. You put it on your calendar that the Salem Farmers Market grand opening for the 2014 season was Thursday, June 12th. And you forgot about it. Don’t worry. It will take place next Thursday and every Thursday until Oct. 23rd from 3-7pm in our Derby Square.

Vegetables by the ounce, pound and bushel await you. Plus a great deal more (eggs, strawberries, apple cider, tomatoes, greens, pretzels, honey, cookies, and cheese). Several of the tables we hear were cleaned out.

The mission of a “Farmers Market” is to enhance the quality of life in the Salem downtown area by providing a community activity that fosters social gathering and interaction.

You the shopper are given the rare opportunity to interact with the person who grew or made the items on the table for purchase. You can ask questions. Where did it come from? How was it grown? How fresh is it based on how long it took to get to market?

According to a survey conducted by Farmers Markets Today magazine, more than 85% of farmers market vendors traveled fewer than 50 miles to sell at a farmers market in 2008. In fact, more than half of farmers traveled less than 10 miles to their market, according to a 2006 USDA survey.

You are supporting local agriculture and producers by providing a direct market for their produce and goods. And believe it or not you are also bringing business to local merchants.

The Farmers Market Coalition reports that a 2010 study of the Easton Farmers Market in Pennsylvania, for example, found that 70% of farmers market customers are also shopping at downtown businesses, spending up to an extra $26,000 each week.

Therefore we invite you to come to Salem for our Farmers Market, and then stay to visit our diverse selection of shops, stores and restaurants. (Photographs courtesy of Social Palates)

Hoop Over to Salem Arts Festival

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Jun 072014

Photo Credit – Karen Scalia

You are now joining our program already in progress— if you are coming to Salem Ma. this Saturday or Sunday to participate in our annual Salem Arts Festival. But that’s ok. There are more than enough events and creative arts presenters to satisfy your viewing interests.

Now in its sixth year, the Salem Arts Festival boasts attendance numbers in the thousands and celebrates all the arts: painting, photography, sculpture, dance, music, writing, film, new media, performance, theatre, poetry, culinary, and more.

This year’s event also includes a street fair, plus live entertainment on two performance stages (located in Derby Square and on Artists’ Row).

One of the more colorful events, which already took place, but you can join in progress is

the HulaArt project. “Re-use of recycled materials to create diverse art expressions” is one way used to describe what essentially was the presence of “over four hundred hula hoops, a fifth of which were transformed into HulaArt, form a colorful canopy above Salem’s Artist Row.”

But true to this being a part of an Arts Festival, even the delivery and installation of the hoops to create the canopy was performance art. You can walk under the canopy of hoops. You can look up and marvel at the circles and shapes. And you can even try your hand (or waist) at hooping yourself.

We feel this is a great representation of our hopes for the Arts Festival, it is something you can participate in as well as just view.

Kylie Sullivan, Manager of Salem Main Streets comments “The amount of love, imagination, and hard work that has gone into the HulaArt is absolutely incredible, especially on the part of our partners at the Salem Public Space Project and the Phoenix School, in addition to our sponsors and the support of the City of Salem.

She adds “This project exemplifies so much of what we’re trying to accomplish with this year’s Arts Festival – collaboration, community, and transformation of space.”

No need to bring your own hoop, we have plenty to spare and share.

Salem State University and Salem Arts Festival

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Jun 022014

Ponyfish with Priscilla Swain, SSU ’10

Many partners contribute each year to the final production that we call the Salem Arts Festival. At Salem Main Streets we appreciate each and every one of them.

Steve Jones, SSU ’14

Take for example, Salem State University. Granted SSU is not part of Salem’s Downtown district, but it is an important part of Salem. During the academic year, its creative and performing arts departments present more than 100 events on campus, all open to the public. Karen Gahagan, Director of the Center for Creative and Performing Arts at SSU explains, “This year dozens of Salem State visual and performing artists are bringing that creativity downtown and will be participating in the festival. They include students, faculty, staff and alumni from a range of artistic disciplines.”

Among the Salem State participants in this year ‘s festival which takes place June 6-8:

Aurora Borealis Dance Company

Aurora Borealis Dance Company is founded by Salem State dance student Katie Pustizzi. Katie is also a Presidential Arts Scholar at Salem State and was a 2014 Creativity Award winner, the highest honor Salem State bestows on a student in the arts;
Molly Pinto Madigan – Molly is a Salem State alum, class of 2013 and a 2013 SSU Creativity Award winner, in both creative writing and music. She might be providing some of her wonderful original music at the opening reception but have a chat with her about her newly published book, Black Apples: 18 New Fairytales;
YMCA Theatre Company – led by another Salem State Alum, Nicole Leotsakos ‘09, the Y’ s Performing Arts Director;
Only Human – is a musical about a small town, a movie star, humanity, death and pigs. Salem State connections include writer JD Scrimgeour (professor of English), director Peter Sampieri (professor of Theatre), musical director Karen Gahagan (Director of the Center for Creative and Performing Arts), plus a cast packed with Salem State theatre students;
Chalk: A Play – This is a 10 minute play written by SSU English professor Michael Jaros, and starring SSU theatre alum Maryanne Truax ‘13 and current BFA theatre major James Wechsler, a 2014 SSU Creativity Award winner;
The Upstart Crows – a new classical theatre company based in Salem. Many of the actors are students or recent alum of Salem State University or Gordon College, as well as alumni of local theater strongholds Cry Innocent and Rebel Shakespeare. They will be performing Love’s Labour’s Lost on Salem Common each night of the festival;
Ponyfish is an acoustic trio that features Salem State alum Priscilla Swain ‘10;
Machine 475 – This group is a Salem mainstay and includes Richard Lewis, SSU professor of Art & Design, and Salem State alumni Danielle Meara ’11 and Jim Forrest ‘01
The Old Town Hall art exhibition includes works by Scott Dalrymple and Andrea Jenkins, current Salem State students and alum Steve Jones ’14, yet another SSU Creativity Award winner.

We think that Karen Gahagan put it nicely, “The Salem Arts Festival is now well-established and people recognize it as ‘our arts festival’ if one is part of the Salem community no matter what the relationship. The SAF also did an excellent job getting the call for artists out there this year which raised awareness. I think that people at Salem State and elsewhere have started to take notice of this festival and that more and more artists from all over the region will look to participate as it moves forward.”

Mark your calendar, June 6-8 downtown Salem, MA, and go Vikings!

Only Human: A Musical

A Day of Learning, A Day of Fun

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May 102014

School is in session this Saturday as Education Day breaks out all over Salem Ma. But it will be unlike anything you’ve seen before. Classes are in skin care, recycling, rope making, mixology, Farmers Market, photography and more.

The Salem Education Foundation is presenting the “2nd Annual Hats Off to Education Weekend” as a way of promoting community involvement and investment in the public schools of Salem, Ma.

The schedule as posted by SEF includes:

Workshops and Fun Activities, at Old Town Hall, 10am – 3pm
・   The Community Development Coalition will host a bilingual scavenger hunt in Old Town Hall and visitors can take part in a session titled “Journey through the Immigrant Experience”
・   TD Bank will offer finance classes for teens and adults
・   John Andrews of Social Palates and “we_are_Salem” will offer a photography class
・   The House of The Seven Gables will offer bilingual “Dominican Tales”
・   Salem Historical Tours will speak about the city’s rich history
・   The North Shore Career Center will offer workshops on how to build a resume and find a job
・   Henry Miller’s Architecture Lab at Boston Architectural College will offer two hour long workshops on how to build a speaker for your handheld device. Space is limited for this workshop. Please register by emailing Henry.Miller@the-bac.edu
・   Additionally, children will have the opportunity to look at gemstones, learn about beekeeping, brush up on their Harry Potter facts, learn about the importance of recycling, healthy food and gardening and engage in arts activities

Free Community Read Book, Old Town Hall, 10am – 3pm
・ The Community Advisory Board will give away copies of “The Good Thief,” written by Hannah Tinti, a Salem native. This is the book selected for the city of Salem’s first Community Read.

Activities at the Salem Common will include:
・   The Hogwarts Hustle Kids’ Fun Run at 10:30am This is a half-mile fun run for kids age 12 and under. There will also be a dash for kids 4 and under. Kids are encouraged to dress as their favorite Harry Potter characters. Finisher ribbons will be awarded to the first 100 runners
・   12 noon Basketball Tournament! Email Andre at adaley@bgcgs.org
・   Adults and children alike can have a Zumba experience with the energetic Gina Grinarml
・   Learn circuit training with Kerry Murphy
・   Play in a basketball game with Mayor Kim Driscoll
・   Hula hoop and free dance to the rhythms of Mamadou’s drummers!

Performances, at Old Town Hall, 10am – 3pm
・   The Salem High School Jazz Band
・   Destination Imagination team Challenges
・   School-age Latin and African dancers from Greg Coles and his Salsa for the Schools program
・   A theater group and other local talents

The SEF mission is to provide funding for projects that further students’ educational experiences in science, mathematics, the arts and humanities. It supports projects that go beyond the scope of those funded by the Salem Public School Department. And it works with the larger community to make schools a true community enterprise by promoting and coordinating volunteerism and participation in the schools.

Learn something and have a lot of fun.

Live from Salem MA it is Saturday!

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Apr 262014

Writing a blog about Salem Ma is fun, but it is even more enjoyable when there is more than one event going on during the same day. And in our community, that is quite often. For example among the activities today we have:

Healthy Kids Day, Noon-3pm
Salem Jazz & Soul Fundraiser, 8-10:30pm

Healthy Kids day is just what it sounds like. A day for kids to play and learn and have fun, fun , fun. The YMCA’s national initiative to improve families’ health and well-being, features games, healthy cooking demonstrations, arts and crafts and more to motivate and teach families how to develop a healthy routine at home.

Each area Y has different activities. For the Salem Y there will be:

Summer Camp games
Swim tests, swim safety, demos and family swim relays in the pool
Family Zumba
Theatre Games
Vendors:
Smoke House, with the Salem Fire Department
K9 Dogs, with the Sheriffs Department
McGruff Crime Dog, with the Police Department
North Shore Physical Therapy
Plummer Home for Boys
Walgreens
Energy assessments
Children Fingerprinting with New York Life
Woodworking workshop with Home Depot

The Salem Y is located at One Sewall St. Call 978.740.9622 for more info.

And then the night belongs to music. The sounds of Jazz and Soul will fill the air because… the Salem Jazz and Soul Spring Fundraiser takes place tonight in Ames Hall, 290 Essex St.

But more than just music, it is also a dance party featuring the band Combo Sabroso, (tasty combo) which presents “soul cleansing” Latin dance music and reggae. You will hear hard hitting “salsa dura” sounds of the 1970s (Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Oscar D’leon and Sonora Poncena), salsa arrangements of American R&B (Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers and Santana) plus reggae versions of pop hits (Elton John, Steve Miller and The Police). The band’s members are from Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Saint Maarten, Venezuela and the United States.

And that’s not all! North Shore businesses and artists have also donated items for auctions and raffles!

Tickets are available from salemjazzsoul.org, as well as Pamplemousse, and In a Pig’s Eye; proceeds will fund the Salem Jazz and Soul Festival’s non-profit mission of producing free concerts and supporting music education causes on the North Shore.

From start to finish, Salem is a Saturday destination. And don’t forget in between to visit our diverse dining and shopping options in the downtown district.

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