From September 14-17, the event will showcase the town’s bountiful arts scene.
The arts are alive and thriving in Clifton Forge, and the town’s fourth annual Arts Community Celebration is set to be bigger and better than ever before.
For the last three years, the celebration has taken place at the same time as the Clifton Forge Shriners’ Annual Fall Festival. But each year, more organizations have wanted to join in on the fun, so the committee decided it was time that the event take place on a date of its own.
“The local arts community is working together to offer [attendees] an in-depth look at the variety of arts and crafts we have in our area,” says Connie Baker, Executive Director of the Alleghany Highlands Arts & Crafts Center. “It is a joint effort between arts venues in Clifton Forge and many of the downtown merchants. So the variety of exhibits, music, dance, storytelling and hand-on demos and entertainment make the event one-of-a-kind.”
Courtesy of Connie Baker
While each celebration has been more exciting than the last, Baker says that flying solo allows the focus to remain solely on the arts – a goal the committee has hoped to see come to fruition since the event's inception.
Four different exhibitions will be on display this year – painting, weaving, quilting and a photo show. Attendees will also have the chance to check out a wide variety of demonstrations, including pottery, artisan soap and wreath making, caricature and fall decor painting, and woodturning, among many others. Dance performances and activities for children to enjoy will be plentiful all weekend long, and the Historic Masonic Theatre will be offering guided tours and other programming.
An extra exciting addition to this year’s celebration is the Art Market, which gives creators the opportunity to set up shop in the streets of downtown Clifton Forge and sell their work to festivalgoers, as well as buy tickets to productions scheduled by the Alleghany Highlands Arts Council.
Though the Arts Community Celebration showcases the very best of Clifton Forge’s arts scene all in one weekend, there are many organizations working tirelessly every day to help keep the town’s creative landscape booming. “We have several arts businesses in our charming small town,” says Baker. “Nonprofits like Alleghany Highlands Arts Council, Alleghany Highlands Arts & Crafts Center, Inc., the Clifton Forge School of the Arts, the Historic Masonic Theatre and Amphitheatre and many other businesses that are similarly art-minded.”
For more information about the Arts Community Celebration, including a full schedule of events, check out their Facebook page or visit their website at artscommunitycelebration.com.