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2008 MPAartfest well in the works
The McLean Project for the Arts’ second MPAartfest, which takes place Sunday, Oct. 5, is still two months away, but excitement is already bubbling.
Last year’s inaugural event was an immediate success, and this year’s is expected to be equally if not more successful, attracting some 3,500 people to McLean Central Park.
To make sure MPAartfest 2008 comes off exactly as expected, the team putting it together – MPA staff and board members, committee chairs and other volunteers, and some of the 40 participating artists – met for a major logistics meeting July 24.
After the meeting at MPA’s Emerson Gallery in the McLean Community Center, the artists were taken to the park for a detailed walk-through, led by artfest chair and MPA board member Bari Levingston.
“Everything is happening like clockwork,” said MPA board member Kitty Gonzalez.
"Planning started the day after the first artfest ended,” Levingston said.
MPA has limited participating artists to 40 for a practical reason – if it rains and artfest is forced to move indoors, the gallery can only accommodate that number. This year’s 40 juried artists and crafters were selected from 112 entries, mostly from around the metropolitan D.C. area. Sixteen are returning artists, and 24 are new.
Artfest newcomer and ceramist Laura Peery, from Chevy Chase, Md., who creates fanciful teapots, is pleased that the event is small. “It makes an artist feel special,” she said.
Returning artist Joyce McCarten, an abstract painter from Falls Church and 2008 Torpedo Factory Artist of the Year, described MPA artfest as “the best artist event I’ve ever been to.” She also advised newcomers to bring a lot of art.
“And don’t take it down too early,” added McLean resident Julie Lansaw, a MPA art teacher, co-chair of artfest’s visual arts committee and a landscape painter, who will be exhibiting her work.
Chris Monette Appleton, a figurative painter from Oakton who works in oil and watercolor, is not only new to artfest, but also to any outdoor arts festival.
“I’m excited but a little nervous. I feel I need to leave here and paint, paint, paint,” said Appleton, who is a member of AIM (Artists in Motion), the all-women artists group juried into the new Workhouse Art Center at Lorton, scheduled to open Sept. 19.
By the day of the event, more than 200 volunteers are expected to be working, including a team of golf cart drivers who will help artists move their works and other equipment, Levingston said. Many, she noted, are top area CEOs, who thoroughly enjoy the job and are “like boys in a candy store.”
In addition to the “village” of galleries, which this year will surround a “mini village green,” there again will be a Children’s ArtWalk and ArtTent and live entertainment throughout the day.
Moorenko’s Ice Cream Cafe again will be selling “berry artsy,” a treat made especially for the MPAartfest. Other food will be provided by the Lebanese Taverna, Morton’s Steakhouse, Greenberry’s Coffee and Tea Co., and Vinson Hall. The Kettle Korn Man will return as well.
Elizabeth Cullins, of McLean, an artfest coordinator, said she is already saving her money to buy art.
For a complete list of participating MPAartfest artists, visit www.mpaart.org and click on MPAartfest.
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