The Wonders of Westerball

By Maisie Fitzmaurice

Photos courtesy of Katie Giffin

Westerball The Arts Council’s second annual Westerball showcases Westerville’s best artistic talent

Dress to the nines and enjoy a lively evening celebrating art in the Westerville community at this year’s Westerball. The Arts Council of Westerville’s second annual Westerball event will be hosted at The Point at Otterbein on Feb. 25 from 6-11 p.m.

Westerball’s organizers aim to create a night enjoyable for all ages and interests. Activities include a kid’s art gallery with awards, a silent art auction, live dance performances, live music, photo backdrops, art galleries and installations featuring art from all different mediums, food, drinks, and more.

Katie Giffin, The Arts Council of Westerville’s president, says Westerball is a great opportunity to experience a wide range of arts and entertainment.

“The goal of this ball was to bring all arts loving enthusiasts together and have a celebration of the arts. So we celebrate everything from our local dance groups to local band musicians,” she says.

The host of the event, The Arts Council of Westerville, originally formed almost 30 years ago in 1996 and has since held a yearly reception. In 2021, The Arts Council decided to turn that reception into Westerball, an event that would encapsulate all that the Westerville arts scene has to offer.

Westerball serves as a fundraiser for The Arts Council of Westerville. The funds go toward The Arts Council’s goal of obtaining a dedicated Cultural Arts Center in Westerville. These funds also assist with activities and services The Arts Council provides such as art classes for children and adults and educational grants for school art programs.

“Arts is the No. 1 area that gets cut in many schools’ budgets. So our goal is to provide them with the funds to be able to still offer those amazing things to their students, things that a lot of kids don’t have the ability to even touch. So we want to make sure that it is available to all,” Giffin says.

Giffin says last year’s Westerball was a success, hosting around 525 guests. For this year’s Westerball, Giffin hopes to see an increase in attendance as COVID-19 precautions and anxiety drops.

“We’re hoping to surpass 600 this year,” she says.

Westerball

Katheryn Munger, executive secretary at The Arts Council of Westerville, says feedback from last year’s attendees was overwhelmingly positive. This helped solidify the council’s plans to continue the event annually.

“It’s just like a really upbeat, positive, fun night and what we heard from people was “this is the best fundraiser I’ve ever been to,” or “this was the most fun fundraiser I’ve ever been to,” Munger says.

One family who attended last year’s event shared their appreciation for the night saying it allowed for them to share a special moment despite the setbacks they had experienced from COVID-19 related cancellations.

“There was one father and daughter who didn’t get to go to their dance, and

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she didn’t get to have her prom, and they were able to dance again. And that was really sweet. So moments like that just bring people together again,” Giffin says.

Some of the funds from this year’s Westerball will go toward feasibility studies used by The Arts Council to affirm a need for a dedicated Cultural Arts Center. “That’s kind of our ultimate goal with this study is to show the impact that we could have and a lot of the times cities need facts that proves that that’s the case. So this is kind of the first step and outreach to show that an outside source is able to come in and take a look at things and provide some feedback from the city or from the community that the city really needs this,” Giffin says.

This year’s Westerball theme, “There’s a Space For Us,” was inspired by a couple of different things. The first being a telescope image taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope last year. The theme also encapsulates the idea of a space for all forms of art in Westerville and the Arts Council’s goal of eventually having a space for a cultural arts center in Westerville.

“When we think of art, we are always thinking there’s a blank space on this canvas, there is a blank space in my notebook where I’m trying to do creative writing or write poetry. As artists, we are filling space; as a dancer, you’re walking across the stage, you’re jumping up into the air, you’re filling the space with your art,” Munger says.

Munger says their goal of creating a cultural arts center perfectly fits in with this year’s Westerball theme. “It also has the connotation of trying to get a Cultural Art Center. There is a space for us, there is a space for art. And we’re trying to build that with this event,” she says.

The goal of a cultural arts center isn’t just offering an arts space. Munger believes a center would be financially beneficial to Westerville as well.

“We have a giant interest in the arts here and just having a place to have all those events, I think would be would be wonderful for our community and bring in a lot of tourism dollars, bringing a lot of money to town, and also really showing off what we have here and probably bring some amazing talent to Westerville for the benefit of our citizens,” Munger says.

One of the most highly anticipated activities, new to this year’s Westerball is a “Monster Art Rally” where artists will be creating art pieces live over the course of an hour for event goers to watch and enjoy. The art pieces made during this rally will all be sold at a minimum bid of $50 with proceeds benefiting The Arts Council of Westerville.

Another element of Westerball is the flash mob. This year’s flash mob dance routine is choreographed by two Otterbein University students and will be performed by members of five different dance studios in the Westerville area. The routine will be available on YouTube prior to the event in the hopes that attendees will learn the dance and join in during the flash mob.

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www.middlefieldbank.bank Maisie Fitzmaurice is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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