Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 12-13—RUTLAND—Chaffee Art Center’s 62nd annual Art in the Park Summer Festival will take place this weekend in Rutland’s Main Street Park at the junction of routes 4 & 7. Juried fine artists, craftspeople, and specialty food producers will be featured. Rounding out the festival are food vendors, live music, Free kids’ activities, and demonstrations of works in progress held throughout the weekend. Hours: Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. A voluntary donation is appreciated.
We invite everyone to visit this fun event. Attendees will enjoy the variety of unique handcrafts and fine art that will be on exhibit and available for purchase at the outdoor festival. The visual arts are represented by a selection of oil paintings, watercolors, acrylics, and photographs. A full array of crafts will be featured: pottery; fiber items such as handmade clothing, quilted items, weighted blankets & heatable/freezable stuffed monsters, fabric art and canvas bags; stained glass sun-catchers and mobiles; stone candle lamps; jewelry; wooden furniture, bowls, lamps, cutting boards, birdhouses, fairy houses; aromatherapy and herbal products; candles; CBD wellness products; metal garden art; hand lettered cards, prints, apparel and stickers; and more! Specialty food producers will have jellies, jams, dips, spices, raw honey and honey products. There will be a booth to get artist hand-painted henna tattoos.
Food concessions will sell their delicious food both daysincluding the Yellow Deli and the Rollin’ Rooster food truck. Also, for the sweet tooth, Fiona’s Sweets & Tweets food truck will have ice cream floats and sundaes, specialty beverages and desserts; plus, you can enjoy kettle corn, kettle fudge and roasted nuts. Live music will be performed all day on Saturday and Sunday featuring Caber Wilson, Phil Henry, Dirty Red Hearts, James Cram, Breanna Elaine, and Jamie Snook. Back again this year are Chaffee Bucks that will be given away randomly at the gates throughout both days. Winners can spend the Chaffee Bucks during the festival weekend at any booth in the park.
A new event, “Chalk Around the Park,” will be featured this year. It’s Art in the Parks’ 1st annual chalk art contest. From 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 12, entrants can work on their chalk art on the sidewalk that goes around Main Street Park, and winners will be announced at 5 p.m. On Sunday, the designs will be on display for all to see. Pre-registration is recommended but not mandatory. First-come, First-serve basis. Register at chaffeeartcenter.org. Those who pre-register will be assigned a 3×3 space to design, and an email with info and criteria will be sent. Entrants are encouraged to take a photo of their finished design in case weather changes for judging purposes and social media usage. If inclement weather, the contest will be moved to Sunday.
Art in the Park is Vermont’s oldest continuing arts tradition, and the Chaffee Art Center’s major fund-raising event, occurring twice yearly in mid-summer and autumn.
For registration or more info, visit: chaffeeartcenter.org.
