Arts Council Celebrates Local Arts With Artapalooza

Marlinton, WV – A cancelled art show turned into an opportunity for the Pocahontas County Arts Council. Member and instructor Cynthia Gurreri says the group had booked the Pocahontas County Opera House for an exhibit this memorial day weekend, but when those plans fell through, the arts council seized the opportunity to launch a celebration of the arts and local artists.

“We had this great space of time,” says Gurreri. “It was our chance to do it the way we wanted to do it.”

Dubbed “Artapalooza,” the event will offer four days of hands on activities for all ages, and an exhibit and sale of the work of arts council members and invitees.
The event kicks off with a Kids Night, from 4-8 p.m.

“I have a variety of projects that I think are really kid-friendly, like Kool Aid mixing,” Gurreri says. “That’s where you can make the ugliest Kool Aid in the world.”

Cookie decorating and Pirate themed activities are also part of the evening’s lineup. Saturday is the start of a two-day art show and sale.

“I have a variety of younger artists in the area, and I actually have one artist’s work being represented who’s from Serbia,” Gurreri says. “This is the kind of thing I really wanted to try and do is get an eclectic mix of different kinds of art.”

“I happen to be a position to know some of the younger artists,” Gurreri continues, “because as part of Pocahontas County Arts Council, I’ve been one of the people that has worked with the scholarship program, so I’ve met some of the younger artists that way.”

The show also features a series of art demonstrations by Arts Council members.

“We’ll have pottery demonstrations, water color demonstrations, oil painting demonstrations,” Gurreri says. “I’m going to try to set this up in a way that we can make it hands on. The artist that’s in there may be painting a painting, and the kids or adults may try to make a painting beside them, so they can actually feel the paint, feel the brush, feel the canvass.”

Festival activities conclude with a tea dance on Monday, from 1 to 6 p.m.

“I wanted to give it a West Virginia flavor,” Gurreri says. “We had such a big hit at the Nettles Festival, with the nettles tea, why not do an herb tea dance instead? I had several individuals from the community come in and help me make tea pots. So we’ll have tea pots for raffle. We’ll be tasting tea from these tea pots, and we’ll be dancing to a mix of modern and oldies.”

In addition to the fun, Gurreri says she hopes the event will turn people on to the classes offered by the Pocahontas County Arts Council on a continuing basis at the Little Yellow House in Dunmore.

Artapalooza takes place this Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the Pocahontas County Opera House in Marlinton.