LIVING ARTS BLOG

Jonathan Williams 8/21/19 Jonathan Williams 8/21/19

Looking Back: Open Arts Fest

Hi my name is Johnathan Williams, I am a visual artist, beatmaker, DJ, and I was on the Open Arts Fest planning team this year. I had a lot of fun this summer planning Open Arts Fest, and I also learned a lot and gained more experience for a career.

Open Arts Fest is important to me because it gives me and others a place to see performances and take part in fun art activities in the community. I think that an event like this is important to have because it exposes people to different forms of art and fun activities, but it is also a great way for me to connect with other teens around our creativity and expressing ourselves. Also, the event is based on our open studio model, so people can go at their own pace with the activities and performances that are happening.

The planning team for Open Arts Fest met three times a week to plan and make decisions around different parts of the event, such as the schedule, activities, decorations, community partners, evaluation, and marketing plan. One of the three weekly meetings was a training for Grow Detroit’s Young Talent. In these trainings we talked about things such as banking, how non-profit work, communication and professionalism, job searching and resumes, and self-awareness and personal growth.

Open Arts Fest 2019 this year was really fun, and there was a lot to do! I wish the event had been a little longer so we could have had time to have more fun getting into the arts activities after the performances, but I still had a great time.The performances by Mosaic, Living Arts dancers, and really all of them were great. I could see everyone was enjoying the event.

For next year, I hope that we can invite more people, and have more activities and performances during the event. We are also already working on bringing in some live art and more activities for outside. Lastly, I would like the event to be later in the evening so that we can have more teens there and so it will be less hot outside for the activities and performances. Overall I think that the Open Arts Fest was fun and important for the community and we hope to get a wider audience of teens next year.

Diamond Davis and Bailee Williams 7/22/19 Diamond Davis and Bailee Williams 7/22/19

Here's Why You Should Come to Open Arts Fest!

Hi! I’m Diamond and I’ve been with Living Arts as a dancer, photographer, and artist for over five years.

And I’m Bailee and I have been dancing at Living Arts for four years. I was originally introduced to Living Arts when me and my mom stumbled upon it, and I have been coming ever since. During my time here I have taken all types of classes like ballet, tap, point, jazz, hip hop, salsa, and Afro-Latin.

Hi! I’m Diamond and I’ve been with Living Arts as a dancer, photographer, and artist for over five years.

We’re two of the teens planning Open Arts Fest. We’d like to share some info with you about Open Arts Fest and invite you to join us in this all-teen art party!

Open Arts Fest is an event thrown by the teens in the SPOT, Living Arts’ teen open studio. We first started working on the event last year. Originallym we didn’t know what it was going to be or how it was going to come out but we knew we wanted to spread the name of Living Arts and also have something fun for the community every year. So we came up with Open Arts Fest. The program is not just to bring in more teens, but to have a fun interactive event for not only the Southwest Community but whoever else would like to come.

Last year the event was filled with hula hoop contest, dance competitions, performances, open mics, screen printing, and more! There were so many different things for everyone to do.

This year, we are inviting teens to come to the event, either to stop by and hang out or to sign up to perform. You can submit a proposal to perform here. We’re working to make it bigger and better to top last year!

We have already started posting flyers for the event and even gathered some teens to perform. There will be a DJ with some really cool beats and music! We will also have fun activities to participate in and prizes to win. We’re very excited about the printmaking because of all the different designs.

We’re excited about the food trucks because we know they will be just as good as last year! The performances will be great and we’re also participating in them. Stop by 3-6pm on August 10th at the FREC (2826 Bagley).

Hope to see you there!

Diamond & Bailee