Press release from Arts United:
Arts United Announces Taste of the Arts Entertainment
(August 3, 2010) – Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne is pleased to present the region’s premiere arts festival-Taste of the Arts. This second-annual event will be held in downtown Fort Wayne on August 28th from Noon. to 7 p.m., followed by “Dessert”-a showcase of local bands.
Admission to the Taste of the Arts is free so everyone can come and enjoy a wide variety of art and cultural opportunities in the greater Fort Wayne area.
Festival activities will include:
- Arts United Center and Freimann Square – the heart of the main event where four stages will showcase more than 26 different performances throughout the day, with two stages active at all times. Over 40 non-profit organizations will offer hands-on activities and information about their different arts programs. Facepainting, dance workshops, an instrument playground, and costume displays are just a sampling of activities to try. ARCH will offer hourly historic downtown walking tours.
- Great food will be a highlight of the festival with 20 local restaurants selling samples from their menu. Beer and wine will be served in the lovely gardens around Freimann Square. Tickets for food and beverages will be $1 each, with most items ranging from 1 to 4 tickets. Restaurants will be contributing half their proceeds to Arts United for arts education grants to area schools.
- An Art Marketplace will feature a dozen artists selling their high-quality works and the Museum of Art will be open free all day.
- The History Center, also free during the festival, will be a busy place with folk artists and Settlers demonstrating traditional folk-arts in the beautifully restored Shields Room. The History Center will have a photo booth for festival patrons to capture the moment and the Barr Street Market hours will be extended with live entertainment and local products for sale.
- At the Hall Community Arts Center, Artlink will be exhibiting a poster show and edible art (a large cake to be cut at 5 p.m. for Dessert). Cinema Center will run free movies and Dance Collective will have small workshops throughout the day. In the Frontier parking lot on Berry Street, teenage rock bands and hip hop dancers will perform every hour, more restaurant vendors, beer and wine and activities will keep this corner of the festival hopping.
- Free shuttle service will be available to carry patrons between the three venues.
Arts United will use this event as an annual catalyst to fund new projects. This year, proceeds from food, beverage sales and goodwill donations will be used to expand a grant fund for schools for artist-in-residence programs or for field trips to local cultural institutions.
Sponsors for Taste of the Arts make the event possible. Thanks go to Fort Wayne Metals, Emley Design Group, PNC, Wells Fargo Private Bank, SceneFuse, Carson Boxberger Attorneys, CVC Communications, Indiana Michigan Power, Lupke-Rice Insurance, Mimi and Ian Rolland Foundation, One Lucky Guitar, Jam Crib, Fort Financial Credit Union, Tri-State Maintenance, Comcast, WAJI 95.1, WFWA 39, NIPR 89.1 fm and WANE-TV 15.
Taste of the Arts volunteers are busy pulling the final details together to make the event accessible to everyone who wants to sample some of Fort Wayne’s food and artistic treasures. Our websites are regularly updated. For Taste of the Arts activities: www.TasteoftheArtsFortWayne.org and for the evening band showcase see www.DessertFW.com.
Performers on the four stages around the Arts United Center include:
- Ballroom dancers
- Chadd Michaels singers
- Fort Wayne Ballet
- Fort Wayne Children’s Choir
- Fort Wayne Civic Theatre
- Fort Wayne Dance Collective
- Fort Wayne Youtheatre
- Fort Wayne Philharmonic Ensembles
- Hearthstone Ensemble
- IPFW Community Arts group
- IPFW Dancin’ Dons
- Latin Style Dancers
- Mad Ants dance group
- Mon Dancers
- Northeast Indiana Suzuki Guild
- Peru Circus
- Queen’s A-A Literature
- Radkids
- Raq the River Belly Dance Troop
- Science Central
- SheeKri dancers
- Summit City Chorus
- TAIKO drummers
- TRIAAC dance/drums
- Univ. of St. Francis Act One theatre group
- Y Steppers
Restaurants at Arts United Center:
- Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano
- Carlos O’Kelly’s Mexican Café
- Champions
- Club Soda
- Fort Wayne Tin Caps
- Friends Greek Restaurants
- Granite City Brewery
- Granite City Food
- Hall’s Gas House
- JK O’Donnell’s
- Joseph Decuis
- Mad Anthony Brewing Co
- Mad Anthony Restaurant
- MyMenu
- Nine Mile Restaurant
- Purple Mountain Cheesecakes
- Qdoba Mexican Grill
- The Venice Restaurant
Hall Community Arts Center, outside stage by Artlink/Cinema Center.
Local high-school age musicians are scheduled as follows:
- 12 pm Jam Crib’s Jam School Bands
- 1 pm 77 Times
- 2 pm The Johnny Freeze Rumor
- 3 pm Audio Mimes
- 4 pm Taylor Fredricks Band
- 5 pm Cadenza
Food at the Hall Community Arts Center (Noon to 10 p.m.)
- Hall’s Takes the Cake
- Mad Anthony Brewing Co
- Mad Anthony Restaurant
- Purple Mountain Cheesecakes
- Stellhorn Subway
Dessert -a party after the Taste at the Hall Community Arts Center’s outside stage, by Artlink/Cinema Center, 6 – 10 p.m.
- 6 pm Possum Trot Orchestra
- 7 pm Mark Hutchins & The Exploding Radio Stars
- 8 pm The Sacred Broncos
- 9 pm Wooden Satellites
Saturday evening, a free old-fashioned trolley will travel every 15 to 20 minutes between three downtown concerts -starting at Dessert at 6:45 p.m. and running a cultural district loop until 10:45 p.m. The trolley will connect Dessert, Rock the Plaza and a block party on The Landing-all are free admission. The trolley is sponsored by Tri State Maintenance and Arts United.
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