For press and publicity information about Art on the Green or Citizens' Council for the Arts, please contact us at 208-667-9346 or info@artonthegreen.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The all-volunteer board of Citizens' Council for the Arts would like thank our patrons, artists, community friends, and especially our volunteers for an amazing and successful 53rd festival this August. We also officially announce the 2022 festival dates:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
August 5,6 & 7, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Happy 50th Anniversary to Art on the Green! @ North Idaho College August 3,4,5, 2018
Art on the Green will be celebrating its 54th Anniversary on the lake-side campus of North Idaho College, August 5, 6 & 7, 2022. There will be special entertainment, a Children's Art Garden, classes and workshops.
The Art on the Green art festival has risen in attendance and notoriety to become one of the most prestigious festivals in the Inland Northwest area. As one of the oldest continual festivals in the region, Art on the Green is known for its elegance of venue, family atmosphere, and variety of affordable art.
Art on the Green is free to the public. Staged on the beautiful green of North Idaho College on Lake Coeur d’Alene, it is only minutes from Interstate 90 (off the Northwest Boulevard exit), and parking at the college is easy and free.
Art on the Green celebrates seasoned as well as emerging artists. All participating artists have been juried and the festival will have more than 120 art booths this year. Many artists are regional from Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana, while others come from California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and still others from as far away as Maine. There is also a Juried Show within the festival where participating art pieces are judged and eligible for over $3,500 in prize money and awards. Art works in the Juried Show are original creations and available for purchase. The Clothesline Sale features original paintings and photographs affordably priced from $10 to $95.
Younger artists are encouraged to “test the waters” as working artists and are able to participate as Youth Booth artists. This year we have six youth artists with booths where they will sell their wares, as well as a booth for the aspiring student artists of North Idaho College.
Art on the Green is distinctly known as a family affair and has received local awards and attention as a "Best Family Event." The festival is stroller-friendly, and children and families are invited to our Children's Art Garden, where each child can create and take home their own masterpiece. Easels, washable paints and brushes, and modeling clay are supplied free to every child.
Live entertainment runs all weekend long on two stages, and features music of many genres, including classical, jazz, rock, pop, indie, dance music, R&B, soul, folk, Bluegrass, Americana, contemporary country, big band, Celtic, and many singer/songwriter performers. All performances free, paid for by the work of dedicated Art on the Green volunteers.
The Beer & Wine Garden at Art on the Green will feature locally crafted beer, wine and hard cider. Patrons can come taste a variety of “liquid art” while enjoying the great music on the North Stage at Art on the Green.
Food offerings range from good old-fashioned festival food to trendy current favorites to health-conscious options. Most food booths are run by Art on the Green volunteers and feature fresh, local food. Fresh corn on the cob, grilled chicken and fish, sausages and sandwiches, pulled-pork sandwiches, veggie noodle bowls, acai bowls, frozen lemonade, and ice cream are all available in the North Stage food court at the center of the festival. We are expanding our South Stage food offerings by bringing in gourmet wood-fired pizza. Also at the South Stage: Kettle corn (a festival favorite) and the “Wellness Bar” food truck.
The 54th annual Art on the Green is presented by the Citizens' Council for the Arts, a non-profit corporation of interested volunteers formed to encourage, promote and support the arts locally. Art on the Green is unique in that it is run by volunteers, and it is not a fundraiser for another cause: it is art for art. Fees and commissions from artists and food booth sales pay the costs of the festival for the next year.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: History of Art on the Green
FOUNDERS
No one remembers for sure all of the threads that lead to the first Art Festival, but they spun out of a common spool of ideas from gatherings at private homes, North Idaho College, and places where a core of artists and supporters came together and began to weave an event: a summer celebration of art.
Many of the volunteers in the festival's formative years were graduates of art schools who knew the sorrows and joys of producing and selling art. Many of the others were skilled in creating organizations, running businesses, and bringing people together. Their collective vision was clear: "let's give skilled artists a market place, and the community a place to meet artists and buy their hand made work. Let's promote and encourage all the arts." Fay Wright
Founders and early volunteers:
Barry Schuler, Opal & Lloyd Brooten, Jeanne & Ralph Holmberg, Merlin Miller, Nile Latta, Mary Lou and Scott Reed, Barbara & Harlan Siebert, Sue & Patrick Flammia, Nancy Stalter, Liz & Jack Steve, Julie & George Ives, Jim McLeod, Mary Dee & Allen Dodge, R.G. Nelson, Barbara Burns, Donna & Roger Young, Mary Nelson Brown, Sue & Don Sausser, Jan & Steve Meyer, Stevie Webb, Lisa Daboll Lynes, Jim Liesse, Carol & Martin Stacey
BEGINNINGS
On the first weekend in August of 1968, the first ever Outdoor Arts and Crafts Festival in Coeur d'Alene was held on the Rotary tennis courts. Liz Steve and Pat Flammia used to look flushed just remembering the heat of that day spent on unshaded black top with temperatures hovering at and over one hundred degrees. It was so hot that Flammia used to tell of a painting melting and finally buckling (much to the chagrin of the artist) and of their efforts to sell it anyway as an abstract! (You've got to have a healthy sense of humor to be an artist in the great outdoors.) Hot dogs and canned pop - that was the food for the first year.
The group incorporated in late 1968 calling themselves the Citizens' Council for the Arts. In 1970 they found the perfect place for the festival when, with the support of then North Idaho College President, Barry Schular, they moved to the pine-filled grounds behind the college's student union building. Partially shaded by tall Ponderosas and bordered to the south by Lake Coeur d'Alene and the west by the Spokane River, the festival could then add 'green' to its name, and thus was born Art on the Green.
MESSAGE FROM A FOUNDER
The arts are integral to life. The arts are essential to our well being.
In 1968, a group of Coeur d'Alene residents decided to have more of the arts available in their community. To do this, they created an outdoor arts festival that included visual and performing arts. From this, Art on the Green evolved.
The festival is the center of summer in Coeur d'Alene and, as one volunteer described it, "Art on the Green is a work of art, greater than the sum of its parts."
Just think...[50] years, hundreds of volunteers and artists, thousands of pieces of beautiful art, brought here by the artists, and carried out, piece by piece, by individual buyers. It's a direct link between people, concerning the highest form of communication.
Art on the Green is a great place to be together. There we are the best we can be - creative, peaceful, harmonious, people of all ages coming together to celebrate each other, the arts, and community.
To all the volunteers who have created Art on the Green, thank you for your work, talent and love.
Sue Flammia, founder
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Art on the Green 2018 Entertainment Highlights:
We are honored to have Norma Jean Louie and the Shooting Star dancers from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe bless our festival on their ancestral ground to open our 50th Art on the Green. Join us at 11:00am on Friday, August 3, at the North Stage.
Country fans will enjoy boot-stomping regional favorites Earl Wear and Haywire, country variety Friday, August 3, 1:30pm at the North Stage.
We are offering free Big Band Dance Lessons Friday, August 3, 7:00pm at the North Stage, followed by big-band favorite
Tuxedo Junction.
On Saturday, August 4, the Coeur d'Alene Symphony, Haran Irish Dancers and Hot Club of Spokane punctuate a day full of great performances on the North Stage.
Sunday, August 5, Seattle bluegrass band Dysfunction Junction, award-winning Gypsy Soul, the Sara Brown Band and Soul Proprietor fill out the entertainment schedule all day.
Full entertainment schedule.
BEER & WINE GARDEN @ THE NORTH STAGE
Featuring locally crafted beer, wine and hard cider. Come taste a variety of “liquid art” while enjoying the great music on the North Stage at Art on the Green! Valid photo ID is required for all alcoholic beverages – served only to those 21 and older.
Beer & Wine Garden Hours
FRI 12:00-9:00pm
SAT 11:00am-9:00pm
SUN 11:00am-5:00pm
LOOK FOR THE SANDCASTLE in progress all weekend!
LIVE BLACK SMITH DEMONSTRATIONS all weekend long by Columbia Fire & Iron. Find them at the North Entrance of the festival.
Art activities for kids all weekend long in our CHILDREN'S ART GARDEN.
In addition to painting and clay, there will be a special 50th Anniversary art activity each day, specific to the day and available until we run out:
Friday, Aug 3, 2018 FAIRY WINGS
Saturday, Aug 4, 2018 CAPES
Sunday, Aug 5, 2018 ART GARDEN FLOWERS
MUSIC CORNER
Friday, Aug 3, 2018, 2:00-3:00p
Kids can have a hands-on experience with marimbas! Sponsored by the Coeur d'Alene Youth Marimbas. At the heart of Coeur d’Alene is its youth, and you can feel it in the school and community arts programs. CdA Youth Marimbas specializes in the traditional music of southern Africa. Be sure to watch the Coeur d'Alene Youth Marimbas on the North Stage 12:00-1:00p to see the marimbas in action beforehand.
CLASSES AT ART ON THE GREEN
Hosted by the Pat Flammia Drawing Institute and the Citizens’ Council for the Arts. The CCA established the Patrick Flammia Drawing Institute to provide opportunities for artists of all ages to have drawing classes with guest artists.
Friday, Aug 3, 2018
1:00-2:30p Raku with Jeff Harris part 1 (glazing) - Booth #27, ages 16+
2:00-3:30p Skull drawing with Mary Maio - Juried Show tent, ages 14+
Saturday, Aug 4, 2018
9:00-11:00a Raku with Jeff Harris part 2 (firing) - Booth #27, ages 16+
10:00a-12:00noon Perspectives and Techniques of Drawing with Alan and Mary Dee Dodge - Juried Show tent, ages 14+
Sunday, Aug 5, 2018
10:00a-12:00noon Watercolor Painting with Jessica Bryant, Juried Show tent, ages 14+
If interested, please call 208-667-9346 or stop by the Juried Show booth, to see if spaces for classes are still available.
Art on the Green CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
Organization: Citizens’ Council for the Arts
For Immediate Release
Be part of Art on the Green's special 50th anniversary! Did you know? Art on the Green is run by more than 500 volunteers each summer. Shifts are 2-3 hours long, depending on the station. We have shifts for all ages. You can now volunteer online - it's easy! Art on the Green volunteer opportunities include:
- Food and beverage booths – food and drink booths are run by volunteers to support the festival. Serve ice cream, prepare tasty food, or sell cold drinks with a warm smile!
- Children’s Art Garden – the festival provides free hands-on art activities as well as special activities for a small fee for children of all ages.
- Art areas, including the Clothesline Art Sale.
The purpose of the festival is to support the arts & artists, and to bring a wonderful art & music festival to our community each year. Admittance into the festival and all of the entertainment is free of charge, thanks to our volunteers! Art on the Green is a highlight of summer in Coeur d’Alene, and volunteering for the festival enriches the community where we live.
If you are a returning volunteer and want to volunteer at the same station this year, please get in touch with your station leader or email volunteer@artonthegreen.org.
Art on the Green | Citizens' Council for the Arts