The eighth annual Seward Arts Festival (SAF) is just around the corner. On Nov. 3, you can catch a glimpse of this year’s events at the Seward arts preview. A “Shoeless SAF Artists and Patron Meet and Greet” from 4–7 p.m. will be held at The Movement Arts Center, with refreshments from Pizza Lucé, Peace Coffee and live music by The Gilded Lily.

The festival itself gets underway the following Saturday, Nov. 10, with an opening reception at 11 a.m. at the Northern Clay Center. From noon–5 p.m., the festival’s signature event, the arts crawl, takes place at the studios, businesses and homes of more than 100 area artists, writers and performers. Other festivities include live music, specials all afternoon at the Birchwood Café and a wine tasting from 2–4 p.m. at SKOL Liquors.

Argentine tango dancer Florencia Taccetti will perform in the Eagles Club Big Ballroom from 3–5 p.m. Also at 3 p.m., Seward’s own Pulitzer-nominated poet Michael Dennis Browne will be joined by other prose writers and poets for the arts festival reading at Seward Towers East. An event at the Joan of Art Gallery begins at 3:30 p.m.

Seward Pizza Lucé will host a pre-parade rally and “meet and eat” from 5–6 p.m. with an hour-long parade — starting at Lucé and making its way through the Seward neighborhood to The Hexagon Bar — beginning at 6 p.m.

Stay late at The Hexagon Bar for film screenings, belly dancing and live bands, which last until 2 a.m.

For a more complete listing of events visit www.sewardarts.org or pick up a Seward Arts Festival program at the preview event Nov. 3.

Behind the Ivy

The newly opened Vine Arts Center is hosting the Seward Arts Festival this year.

On a street in the middle of Seward is a building covered from top to bottom with green. The entire façade of the long Ivy Arts Building, 2637 27th Ave. S., is covered in — you guessed it — ivy vines, but what’s inside is even more interesting: a wide array of tenants: art therapists and acupuncturists, orchestra directors and motorcycle repairers, a comic book artist and a biodiesel group.

Appropriately enough, the newest major addition to the building is the Vine Arts Center, and the space and its mission are as creative as its play-on-words name suggests.

“We are a nonprofit, art-inspired, member-run gallery, community space, and resource center, and we are all of those things, equally,” said Director Leah J.H. Stob.

“We aren’t in it for money,” Stob said. “We want to expose artists, host classes and get the community in. Everyone involved is working pro bono; in fact, we all had to pay our member fees.”

The Vine Arts Center is a seven-year-old dream that bore fruit after last year’s Seward Arts Festival, when permanent gallery space was donated by building owner Howard Kelb.

“For the last four years, we have been putting on a show that involved three months’ worth of work and was only up for one day,” said Stob. “Now we can have shows up for 12 months out of the year.”

The center opened on Sept. 22 with the work of two State Arts Board Grant recipients, Holly Vrieze Murray and JAO. Murray displayed sculpture work, while JAO did live speed painting. Artwork from others involved in the creation of the center was also on display.

“We want to always have a variety of work in here — furniture, fashion, music, etc. — which not many art studios do,” said Stob. “We want this to be an open space, not to pigeonhole anyone. We exist for all art enthusiasts.”

This inclusive attitude is also reflected in the center’s layout; all of the furniture, including benches, tables and shelving, was designed and built by artists involved in establishing the center.

Stob, who closed her personal studio because of the time commitments required by her many ventures, including the Vine Arts Center, was hired by the Seward Neighborhood Group (SNG) to coordinate this year’s Seward Arts Festival, now in its eighth year. After the financial troubles at SNG, Stob continued in the role on a volunteer basis.

“When SNG went down, more than 90 percent of the planning was done, but all of the money we raised was gone,” she said. “So we had a fundraiser and raised more than two times what [we did] last year.” This year’s festival saw a 30–40 percent increase in artist applications over last year, she said, and more than 100 artists are participating.

“We are so excited about the Seward Arts Festival, and we just want to send out a positive message to everyone about how much we want it to be a great success,” Stob said.

last revised: November 1, 2007

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