A Month of ArstFest Magic
The Uptown Art Expo has joined forces with ArtsFest! Over 125 Art & Fine Crafts, Chalk Street Art, Children's Activities, Music & Street Performers in beautiful uptown Altamonte. Join ArtsFest and the Uptown Art Expo on February 18 and 19! For more info, click on the logo above!ArtsFest has over 302 FREE events this year that are offered to the community during the month of February. A small percentage of these events (roughly 20%) require that you make advanced reservations by getting tickets. Often times these events have a limited capacity and can only hold a certain number of people. During ArtsFest 2012, a new ticketing system will be in place for Tickets are Limited events. From ArtsFestFL.com, patrons will be able to access the Ticket Lottery and select up to five (5) Tickets are Limited events that they’d like to attend at ArtsFest 2012. Patrons may enter the lottery during a two week period prior to ArtsFest (January 10-21) at their convenience. Lottery winners will be notified via email on January 25. If patrons that entered the lottery do not win tickets to the event(s) they chose, they will be given their place in line on the waiting list.
The faithful patrons of the greater Orlando area are well aware that their City Beautiful is not characterized by mouse ears alone, despite everything the airports, grocery stores and google searches of “Orlando, FL” may imply. As for the tourists who are altogether unfamiliar with the charm provided by the extenuating districts in the region, one can only hope that those visiting our city are at least minimally disenchanted by the stretch of pseudo-“entertainment” that constitutes International Drive.
So for those of us who know that Orlando exists in greater depth than the grinning costumed characters parading around Disney next door, be glad for such exhibits as the Orange County Regional History Center that is offering free admission to all of its displays as a part of these 10 Days of ArtsFest.
From the lobby, peering up through a layered collection of cartoonized historical factoids is enough to draw in a younger crowd, and as for the older generations, each succeeding floor offers an extensive collection of material, each piece conducive to the appreciation of Orlando’s rich history, and gathered by virtue of the museum’s continuously developing labor of love.
The glass cases preserve countless trinkets and memorabilia, attained through the museum’s laborious effort to locate and re-appropriate each piece individually from the homes of previous owners. Some, such as bayonets and family portraits, attest to Florida’s dominant role during the Civil War, and still others prod even deeper into the dark, primordial recesses of Central Floridian history, exploring the eclectic birth of Orlando as a cultural hotspot and tourist destination even before the inevitable monopolization of the area by Disney and Universal Studios.
What the Orange County Regional History Center really has to offer is a comprehensive defense for the true identity of Orlando, one dissociated from the entertainment empire and theme parks that, however enjoyable, don’t serve as an accurate depiction of the ethnic roots from whose influence modern Floridian culture continues to draw.
The History Center provides much needed punctuation in the continuous stream of advertisements promoting the commercialized entertainment industry that has become synonymous with Central Florida, offering residents a relief permanently embossed in the documented experiences of real people, encountering real, historically pivotal conditions, who emerged to cultivate the admirable nature of Central Florida- one accentuated by organic art and artists- that is Central Florida we know to be real.
The honest nature of children is something to be admired, and nothing awakens that spirit of candid excitement like an interactive, colorful, melodic performance. Essentially, the latter is what MicheLee Puppet Shows provide for their young audience, with the addition of one other very important distinction: MicheLee Puppets comes with a message woven neatly into the fiber of each of their plays.
A Good Day for Pancake is a cheerful marionette show with an undercurrent of morality. What initially seems to be your typical go-to source for an hour’s worth of quality entertainment for an age group spanning from two years to seven quickly transforms throughout the presentation. The plot that begins as explicit and playful as any nursery rhyme unexpectedly hits a pivotal checkpoint when a bully character is introduced to the pack of silly puppets and begins to pick on one of them, hurting the little lion’s feelings and ostracizing him from the rest of the group. The story takes an unprecedented 180-degree turn, and begins to accrue gravity as the bully injects an alien spirit of mean-heartedness and violence into the dynamic of our beloved fluffy heroes.
Pancake the piglet, in all of the sincerity of a child in the age bracket of the bright-eyed attendees in the crowd is struck with an inherent sense of responsibility and concern, and we follow along with Pancake’s strides in an attempt to denounce the bully and right the wrongs imposed on our favorite lion cub. With the help of Pancake’s mom, who also serves as the puppeteer, Pancake and the young audience learn how to report bullying to an adult in order to bring it to an end.
With the cheerful swing of things restored and the vitality of every cast member revitalized, especially the happiness of the lion cub, a quick review of the material covered in the play is crisp evidence of the resilience of the message in the young minds of its viewers. It was clear to see that several short lessons condensed into a simple cadence were enough to have an effect on the kids seated on the floor in front of the stage, and there is something reassuring about watching the next generation subsume such an important lesson into their freshly-developing sense of morality, because seeing this is very nearly the equivalent of watching tomorrow’s young thinkers dissolve domestic violence. That, along with the simple enjoyment of seeing a puppet show, is all the reason you need to see a MicheLee Puppets performance!
MicheLee Puppets are a non-profit organization who cultivate their shows from the seeds of social concerns. To learn more about what MicheLee Puppets does, where to find them, and how to support their cause, visit micheleepuppets.org/ - And tune in on Tuesday the 8th for a presentation of Somebunny Special as part of these ten days of ArtsFest 2011!
As if Stardust Video & Coffee in Orlando wasn’t already an excellent venue of intrigue and good coffee, the habitually eclectic collection of art was augmented today with the inclusion of one very singular piece: Brian Feldman. Particularly, Brian Feldman inside of a Skill crane.
For someone previously unacquainted with Feldman’s work, stepping over the threshold of the cafe to the immediate sight of a grown man of average height and build tucked up in the corner of a game machine amidst a sea of cheap, plush toys freshly imported from China could come as a bit of a shock. However, spending sixteen hours sitting in a glass container sans bathroom breaks is arguably lower on the list of heinous- and relatively masochistic- ventures taken on by Feldman in the past. A quick perusal through the history of the projects listed on his website adds a layer of perspective to this most recent and gleefully obtuse demonstration.
For instance, one of Feldman’s most notable projects found him spinning a bottle with strangers of the opposite sex, and then entering into legal matrimony with the individual selected by the aleatory indication of the glass.
But why thrust oneself into the limelight when laden with such unfortunate circumstances? For money? For notoriety? Maybe just for fun?
Actually, the Feldman projects are oriented around attracting attention, but the acts are far from being narcissistic. Every installation is a visual argument, intended to promote a cause, or at least direct attention towards a polemical issue dear to Mr. Feldman’s heart.
To accentuate what he propounds to be the absurdity of restrictions on same-sex marriages, Feldman entered into a legally-binding union with a woman he didn’t know: just because it was a heterosexual combination, just because they were allowed. For an entire year the couple remained legally bound to one another, but barely in contact and entirely uninvolved with one another’s personal lives. An annulment inevitably took place, but not before that poignant, defiant note resonated firmly among those supporting and following the event; a bleak tenor of uneasiness, the result of that shadow of doubt cast by Feldman over the morality of the institution of marriage, a law that repels some lovers and encourages others to unite disingenuously, based on the premise that some human unions are inherently ‘correct’, not because of any emotion substance or level of commitment, but solely because they are of the opposite sex.
But if Feldman’s goal is to raise awareness of pressing social concerns, what exactly does stuffing himself inside an arcade game machine accomplish?
In 2004 in Sheboygan, WI, a young boy left to his own devices while grocery shopping with a parent crawled into a Skill crane and managed to trap himself inside. The child emerged unscathed, but regardless the incident was of enough importance to inspire Feldman to reproduce it, imparting upon all us the gravity of ensnaring oneself in a public toy box.
For more information about Brian Feldman and his extensive list of projects, visit his website at www.brianfeldman.com
“That’s something a stranger should do, is blow into town and point out something that might’ve been overlooked.”
More and more frequently under the influence of technology, the delicate nuances of phonetics are lost to our newfound inclination to abbreviate. To fragment. To shorten. And all of that gentle, measured sloping meter and rhythm of a language cured and perfected by years and years and generations of people is shamefully neglected.
Thankfully for groups like Emotions Dance, the revival of the artistry in verbal communication was the primary focus for at least a few hours.
Paired with the grace and beauty of dance, Trinity Preparatory School served as the venue for a spoken word performance on the second day of ArtsFest 2011. Words took on an entirely new form when issued through the microphone that night for the dozens of attendees waiting anxiously in the crowd. Sentence after sentence fell upon our ears, each out pour of words cresting and falling in gentle lapping rhythms at times, and snapping and popping and flickering quickly at others.
If art is a force intended to alter the way we perceive the world, then art emerged in true form tonight. We should be thankful for artists like those who invest their passion into the performance of spoken word, because it is through their endeavors that we are able to detect, define and finally grasp that mundane layer of everyday truth, so that we may flip it over and peer at it from the other side.
Without these artists, would we pay any mind to words further than the everyday utility of them during our 9-5 shift as a means to navigate through people in order to get from point A to point B? I’m not so sure we would. Sometimes if it seems our world is void of art, perhaps the problem is not that our immediate surroundings are commonplace, rather that we have become complacent with them.
We should all take a leaf from the book of the spoken word artists and try to peer at that reality in front of us from a new angle. Reevaluate! Overanalyze everything! Try a double-take once in a while. How many beautiful things have you overlooked today simply because they’re included in your routine?
I can be the first to attest to the following: attend a spoken word performance, and language will no longer be one of the arts your attention sails past on a daily basis.
Spoken word was an invigorating reminder that we should all take the opportunity to rub off the callouses once in a while, so that we can have an honest experience with the world around us.
On Saturday, February 5 and Saturday, February 12th, you can catch a wonderful performance of Phantom by the Bay Street Players during ArtsFest 2011. The Bay Street Players will bring Phantom, The American Musical Sensation to life! Based on Gaston Leroux' novel, The Phantom of the Opera, the play's music and drama have enchanted audiences for decades. The production will be held at the State Theater in downtown Eustis. If you miss this show during ArtsFest, no worries, you can make your own reservation to see the show, which will run through February 27. For more information about showtimes and tickets, call the Box Office at 352.357.7777 or visit www.baystreetplayers.org.Join us for ArtsFest! The below PSA will be featured on Brighthouse Networks stations thanks to the generosity of Brighthouse Networks! Thanks to our friends at Orange TV for producing this wonderful sneek peek to help promote this event.
