ArtSlam Set to Take Over Downtown Oct. 15

Downtown Bradenton will be particularly lively and colorful on Saturday Oct. 15 as the second annual ArtSlam takes over Old Main Street from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. encouraging both kids and adults to take part in the event.

The festival features "out-of-the-box" performance art, theater, dance, music, video art, and even an "art fashion show."  The festival is designed to be interactive, offering opportunities for audiences to become part of the art and performances.

"People will be able to work on a potter’s wheel, help paint a community mural, create art from recyclables, and dance to the music of a number of bands," said Johnette Isham, executive director for Realize Bradenton.

Other activities include body-painting, marionette shows, a custom skateboard park and the nighttime release of a thousand paper airplanes. There will be a food court and downtown restaurants and pubs will also participate.

ArtSlam installations will be created “live” along Old Main Street during the eight-hour festival, Isham said.

"Because there is no set theme, collaborative teams will creatively use existing streetscape sites while engaging the general public in a brief contemporary art experience," she said.

Participating artists and performers for the Oct. 15 event include:

Body Art Slam (Barbara Tapley-Kenney, Brandon Sommers of Classic Ink and Southeast High School’s Visual & Performing Arts Academy.) Classic Ink and Southeast High School collaborate to create family-friendly body-painting and a body-painting installation with live models, which will culminate in a body “sculpture” window display inside the Classic Ink storefront. This is an audience interactive art project.

Community Totem Poles from Clay (Gretchen Leclezio and Palmetto Art Center) During the day, with six throwing wheels, Gretchen Leclezio and instructors will assist the ArtSlam audience to create a number of clay vessels and pieces during two, 30-minute sessions. The creations will be assembled into sculptural totem poles. The sculptures will be painted and embellished, during the last several hours of ArtSlam to create an organic, communal sculptural piece.

1,111 Windows to the Soul (Mike Bowen of Bowen Imagery) Visionary artist Michael Bowen illustrates that we really are all connected. Using light, rather than pigment, and occasional rhythmic percussion, rather than melody; he takes the viewer to explore the connections between races, ages, and genders. This project includes a video presentation in the 4th Ave. performance area after dusk. Check schedules at ArtSlam's information tent or the 4th Ave. performance area for time of video presentation.

Building Community (Leymis Bolanis Wilmott, Alyson Dolan, and Fuzion Dance) Fuzión Dance Artists, along with visual artists, musicians, and professional and student performers, will work together to create a live installation. This multi-media and multi-sensory installation will be constantly changing as dancers sculpt their bodies in and around the streetscape as it is manipulated by fellow artists. The team will also present several of their previous performances.

 Little Chalkers (Denise Kowal, producer of the Sarasota Chalk Festival). The young and young at heart are invited to participate in this interactive event to create their own mini-masterpieces, using chalk as their medium and the street surface as their canvas. Their mini-masterpieces will be a part of a day-long puzzle that will respect individuality through a project that creates unity.

Re-Cycle of Seasons (Lyndsay Martinez-Gordon and the Starlette Sisters) The public will be given a new outlook on what can be done with common things they would usually throw away or put into recycle bins. Event attendees will be invited to make their choice of several recycled art designs, then personalize them to hang in trees for nighttime illumination; or they can take their creations home with them.

Old Main Puppet Improv (Jo-Ellen Gorris of the Village of the Arts and team) An assortment of unique, self-designed and constructed puppets will entertain and interact with the audience on two specially-designed stages. Talented puppets will also paint portraits and tell fortunes. The puppets may also wander the streets and interact with the public.

Writings on the Wall (Erica Lindegren and the New College of Florida Dance Collective) This piece explores the intersections between discursive language and interpersonal connections, illuminating how it can be embodied, or inked, physically and emotionally, onto our bodies. Movement becomes spoken word, becomes text, and influenced by other group members, returns to the original sentence phrasing.

Manatee County Memories (Sarah Taylor and team) Various memories and history from residents of Manatee County will be collected and recorded prior to the day of ArtSlam. These, combined with memories and histories of ArtSlam attendees, will be represented with imagery painted onto hand-carved wooden pieces. Assembled, the pieces will form a large 3-D puzzle of a manatee.

Community Murals (Debra Gallery and a team of instructors and young students from ArtCenter Manatee) The audience is invited to assist in the creation of three large mural pieces that will be hung in an art studio at the ArtCenter Manatee facility after ArtSlam. One will represent collage, another an underwater theme, and the third expressionist work.

Elision (Paul Ramshaw, Frank Enright, Jeff Hazelton and team) This conceptual piece brings together musicians, dancers, and video artists in a collaboration that references local and national issues, and elaborates on them to create an expressive media performance. The performance includes Courtney Smith and members of the Moving Ethos Dance Company. This project includes a video presentation in the 4th Ave. performance area after dusk.

Time to Fish (Kathy Fitzgerald and Georgette D’Amelio of Bayshore High School) A sculpture created by using assorted gadgets and found objects to print with paint on precut, primed, metal fish shapes. The fish will be embellished with watch parts, and assembled into a large sculptural piece. A children’s printmaking activity will be ongoing while the aluminum sculpture is being constructed.

Art in the Air (Claudia Deschu, John Kokajko, and team) Audience participants (with assistance from volunteers) will fold 10 different types of planes, blimps and helicopters from colorful paper to prepare for a choreographed evening launch from the balcony, which will be accompanied by music and recorded by photographer John Kokajko. During the day, Kokajko will capture images of participants and immediately print out postcards to mail directly from ArtSlam.

 ArtDeckO (Geza Darrah, crew and team) ArtDeckO is a one-day community “pop up” skateboard park and art project. It is its own world; built of the positivity, creativity, and energy of skateboarding as both an art form and a culture—from a local perspective. Half pipe, quarter pipes, ramps, painters, videographers, live bands, and a team competition video open to the public.  Bring your video camera and enter.

A-maze-in’ Art (Steve McAllister and a collective of artists) Based on the wisdom of the ages that runs through our various traditions, the passage through the Labyrinth of the Unbroken Path will take voyagers through the path of higher consciousness to the heart of who we are as a people.  Various artists have been selected to express particular stages of the journey. The end result is a community-based, interactive piece of installation art that is beautiful, creative, and consciousness-raising.

Out of the Box performances, a new addition to ArtSlam, feature local musicians, dancers, theatrical and poetic artists taking the stage to present their unique and individual talents. These performances are 3-11 p.m., and will rotate between two performance areas: The mainstage on Old Main Street near Manatee Avenue, and the 4th Avenue performance area, near the intersection of Old Main Street and 4th Avenue.

The schedule features performances by The Open Door Band, Atlantico Tropical, Passerine, Blue Star, the RJ Howson Band, Bayside Community Church Band, student dancers and performers from New College, and Tapped-In, a dance troupe from Tampa, as well as additional performers and acts.

For a complete line-up of teams and locations, visit the project section of www.RealizeBradenton.com.