Art Within Reach

 

It is currently 65 degrees. A high of 82 is predicted with no rain in the forecast. May I recommend:

ARTreach returns to the Long Reach Village Center with eight hours of fun: live music, hands on art activities, food, artist demonstrations and more. The event is presented through a collaboration between the Howard County Arts Council and Howard County Government.

From Visit Howard County:

This free, fun, family event will spread throughout the center on Saturday, June 4th from 11 AM to 7 PM, filling the space with art and activity.  Try your hand at arts activities including tie dye, ceramics, puppet making and more; listen to world music performances by local and regional artists; watch one of the many artist demonstrations and visit artist studios; enjoy food from village center restaurants and our festival food trucks; learn about village center businesses and organizations… and so much more!   Attendees can also have their caricature drawn, snap some photos in our open-air photo booth, get their face painted, pick up a reusable festival tote, and engage with strolling performers.   And it’s all FREE!

The first ARTreach was in June of 2015. I was there. I’m happy to see it making a comeback. You May recall that in October of 2021 Long Reach celebrated its 50th birthday with a two-day festival but, unfortunately, heavy rains were the uninvited guests, cutting the party short. This will not happen today, at least, not if the weather report holds true.

As with the first ARTreach, parking will be available at LRHS, with a regular shuttle taking folks back and forth to the festival site. If you want to sit and enjoy the line up of performers, bring your own folding chair. The performances will begin with Cultura Plenera, an amazing group I’ve seen twice at the Chrysalis. 

A quick reminder about the origins of ARTreach:

The evolution of the Long Reach Village Center as an Arts hub goes back at least as far as the ArtReach Festival in 2015. County Executive Calvin Ball, then Council member Ball, spearheaded the community process that was evaluating various concepts for reinventing the aging retail center. Despite being temporarily derailed during the Kittleman administration, the work began anew in 2018. 

…It’s important to remember that we wouldn’t be in the position to have this event at all if it weren’t for the the vision and persistence of the community itself, supported by Dr. Ball and Howard County Government. There’s a whole lot of good stuff going on here. (“Weekend Excitement”, 10/24/21)

If you want to know who else will be performing, or anything else pertaining to today’s festival, take a look at the ARTreach website.