Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park is Houston’s spring art awakening each March. Kicking off with “Legacy at Memorial First Look Friday,” March 27 through Sunday, March 29, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the award-winning juried art event is the only festival to take place in Memorial Park, the city’s premiere public park enclave.
Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park welcomes more than 300 visual and performing artists from around the corner and around the world, including featured artist Larry Stephenson, creator of the whimsical painting, “A Day at the Airport.” The artists, whose works represent 19 media formats, transform the park’s tree-lined, 1.1-mile loop into a canopied outdoor art gallery, bursting with fine art, multi-cultural music and dance and international food, beer and wine cafes. New this year will be the Epicurean Adventure featuring wine tastings and chef cooking demonstrations.
Recently ranked the #3 art festival in the country by the readers of AmericanStyle Magazine (Feb. ’09), Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park received two 2008 International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) Gold Pinnacle Awards and was named “Best Festival in Houston” by the 2008 Houston Press “Best of Houston” magazine.
Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park showcases clay, drawing/pastel, fiber/textiles, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, watercolor and wood creations.
To engage budding artists, the Festival sponsors an Emerging Artists program encouraging area high school students to create and exhibit their 3-D installation art in the park. Younger children will enjoy the on-site Capital One Bank Creative Zone, an interactive area designed for children and families to explore the fun of art such as mini art car building, ornamental rocks, spangles that dangle, wax hand sculptures, mosaic frames, sun photos, assemblage animals and springy bonnets and bowlers.
In addition, Art BaYou returns to the Capital One Bank Creative Zone. Festival goers of all ages can collaborate with GONZO247 and CKC StART Street & Urban Arts on the creation of mosaic masterpieces in a hands-on, collaborative public art project. GONZO247 will be demonstrating the mosaic process on benches that will grace area Spark Park facilities.
Houston Arts Alliance produces the performing arts stage with ongoing multi-cultural musical and dance entertainment. With the park grounds as its stage, CORE Performance Company will conduct a world-premiere program, "WIND-UP, implode, Begin." There also is a wide range of international food and beer and wine cafes for refreshments, plus the new Epicurean Adventure with wine tastings and chef demonstrations.
The City of Houston, Budweiser Select, Capital One Bank, Legacy at Memorial, Houston Parks & Recreation Department, and KTRK-TV are the Festival sponsors. The Festival is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.
Over the past 37 years, the Art Colony Association, the 501c(3) organization that produces the Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park and Bayou City Art Festival Downtown, has raised more than $2.5 million for local non-profit organizations.
Admission is $10 for adults and free for children 12 and under. Cyclists may park their bikes at the new KPFT 90.1FM Bike Depot for $2.00 Per Bike for All-Day Care. There is no public parking of cars in Memorial Park. The Festival provides free shuttle service 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. to and from Memorial Park on Friday from Northwest Mall on Hwy. 290 at 610 Loop at 18th Street; and Saturday and Sunday from Northwest Mall and Downtown: Memorial Drive at Rusk, Rusk at Smith and Smith at Capitol.
For schedules and further information check www.bayoucityartfestival.com or call (713) 521-0133.