Spring has sprung: Arts participation blooms at Sawdust Art Festival
The Sawdust Art Festival saw thousands come through the gate last weekend to check out its transformed grounds during the inaugural Spring Fling event in Laguna Beach.
Approximately 5,000 tickets were sold — including some annual passes — during the three-day show, said Nancy Villere, vice president of the festival's board of directors.
The spring-themed event ran from Friday through Sunday, livening up the grounds with an array of brightly-colored floral displays and interactive stations for visitors to reengage with their creative side.
Community contributions from participants, ranging in age from young children to seniors, finished off the colorful murals. The future of the completed community art projects is yet to be determined as festival organizers consider what to do next.
'Every day, we put a new board up, and we removed the existing one,' Villere said. 'We saved it. Our art education director AnnJo Droog would redraw her beautiful floral banner of designs that people could then come the next day and paint in.'
People responded to the community art project.
'We kind of realized we could repurpose these and use them around the grounds. For one, it would be a reminder of all the fun that we all had at Spring Fling. There's just some magic that happened that weekend that those pieces captured for us.'
At the play house, attendees took turns playing trend-setting fashion designers as they applied decorations to a skirt on a mannequin.
There were about five or six art experiences for festival-goers in addition to the opportunity to mingle with and shop for the work of an estimated 150 artists. Among the experiences, visitors also participated in a paper flower-making station.
Villere said it was fun to bring the childlike sense of 'no judgment' to the artistic exploration of guests coming to the festival.
'I'm so glad everybody gets what I get when I paint,' Villere said. 'If they get a little bit of that happiness, I'm thrilled.'
Apart from the artists with a booth, there were also those who did their best work on stage. The musical performances over the weekend included the Salty Suites, an acoustic band often booked locally. Artist Adam DeVito captured the performance in a drawing.
The Sawdust Art Festival, which kicked off its 59th season with Spring Fling, will also have its annual summer show and the holiday-themed Winter Fantasy later in the year.
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