The Salem Arts Festival announces an invitation for the community to participate in the festival’s 12th year, running June 5 through June 7, 2020. Over 8,000 people regularly attend the family-friendly festival, transforming downtown Salem, MA into an opportunity for the arts community to showcase a wide range of talents.
The festival includes a gallery of juried artists’ work in Old Town Hall, outdoor stage venues for performance and dance, an artist and artisan street fair, a collaborative public arts project, and much more!
“Salem is busting at the seams with visual artists, musicians, poets, dancers, makers, and creative individuals of all types. It’s one of the many reasons people love living and visiting here,” said Kylie Sullivan, Executive Director of Salem Main Streets, co-organizer of the Salem Arts Festival.
The Salem Arts Festival is especially pleased to announce that the festival, initially run as a project of Salem Main Streets, will continue to run in collaboration with the Creative Collective. Creative Collective LLC is a program invested in creative professionals with the mission of fostering the sustainability of the creative industries and supporting creative workforce development. John Andrews, Creative Director, shared his thoughts about this partnership. “I am very excited to partner on another project with Salem Main Streets and expand the impact that the festival has on Salem and support the over 300 artists, performers, artisan vendors, and creatives that participate in this dynamic event.”
Applications for performers, street fair vendors, and the annual mural slam are now live at salemartsfestival.com, with a deadline of March 13th. The juried gallery will be selected by an on-site review process again this year, to be held the weekend before the festival, May 29 through May 31. Artists interested in the gallery should complete an Intent to Apply online at salemartsfestival.com in order to receive the most up-to-date information about the gallery process.
For the 7th year, a community-built public art installation will be included as part of the festival, and the committee is currently in search of proposals from locally-based artists for this year’s project. The project will ideally provide opportunities to create community engagement leading up to the festival, engage with a relevant issue in the community through the lens of art, and provide a compelling visual connection with this year’s festival theme of Vision. The deadline for proposals is March 1st. More information is available at salemartsfestival.com/community-art-project.
Last but certainly not least, planning is underway for the hottest event of the spring – our 7th annual Fashion Show fundraiser! On April 17th, the Salem Arts Festival will transform the historic Hawthorne Hotel ballroom for a night of local fashion, food, drink, and fun in support of one of Salem’s greatest festivals. This special event is supported in part by Salem Five. Information and ticket links are available at www.salemartsfestival.com.
The Salem Arts Festival is organized by Salem Main Streets, the Creative Collective and a collaboration of Salem organizations which provide support for the festival, including the City of Salem, Salem State University, Salem Food Tours, the Phoenix School, and the Peabody Essex Museum, also the title sponsor of the 2020 festival. The festival also relies on the gracious support of its other creative partners, including Retonica Event Lighting, The Scarlet Letter Press, and Octocog Marketing and Design.
If you would like to support this dynamic annual cultural mainstay, please contact Carrie Francis Cabot at carrie@creativecollectivema.com or visit salemartsfestival.com/2020-sponsor-opportunities
For more information about the Salem Arts Festival, please see www.salemartsfestival.com or contact Kylie Sullivan at kylie@salemmainstreets.org or (978)744-0004 (x115).
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