Event of events

by Ron Fortier

The pandemic may be viewed by some as an opportunity to reassess how we do things – from the routines of daily life to how to safely navigate our communities and maintain our connections to family and friends.

It also caused, among other things, an interruption of our much-lookedforward-to seasonal, cultural, and annual celebrations. There have been, however, some positive aspects to the pandemic paradox.

One of them was SouthCoast Spring Arts. An event of events that successfully engaged the spirit of regional cooperation rarely seen before.

A relatively new creative festival, the organizers describe it as “a celebration of the place and presence of the arts in our communities.” Those communities, once perhaps isolated from each other geographically or traditionally, are now working in concert to show their local pride in a region-wide cultural celebration.

Their pre-pandemic community event calendars have been both resuscitated and incorporated into an impressive representation of the South Coast.

According to the organizers, “local arts and cultural organizations, as well as the artists and creative entrepreneurs, have banded together to present innovative, creative, affordable, and participatory art and cultural events.”

The communities represented are found across the South Coast. This year marks the second installment of the SouthCoast Spring Arts festival.

The festival was originally launched in May 2021. The inspiration was to continue the intent and spirit of ArtWeek MA, which was a statewide creative festival for all, presented by Highland Street Foundation and produced by the Boch Center.

Covid, however, interrupted the initiative’s momentum. Lee Heald, known for AHA!, the successful monthly celebration of New Bedford’s art, history, and architecture, and one of the many SouthCoast Spring Arts collaborators, says, “It’s a great consortium. We picked up partners from Fall River to Wareham and have had a wonderful opportunity to work collaboratively.”

Working together and across a large region, the new festival was crafted, “for residents and visitors, it’s the one event that offers a bevy of events across the South Coast,” says Heald.

The event’s website, southcoastspringarts.org, offers the curious and those planning on attending the event-packed festival a single resource to find out what’s going on in the spring and plan for it.

Local arts and cultural organizations, as well as the artists and creative entrepreneurs, have banded together to present innovative, creative, affordable, and participatory art and cultural events.

ARTS COME ALIVE

One of the best byproducts of this seasonal regional celebration is how Fall River and New Bedford event planners have partnered to present a very lively spring kickoff to the upcoming warmer months. It offers people an opportunity to get out and see what’s going on and to celebrate what the region’s artists and arts community have to share.

For individual artists and organizations, the event’s website lists all the scheduled events, dates, times, and locations. The many participating businesses and patrons of the arts, many organizations, and supporters, far too many to mention here, but all represented on the website, include the Marion Art Center, Viva Fall River, BayCoast Bank, Destination New Bedford, the Mass Cultural Council, and WMVY Radio.

The many SouthCoast Spring Arts supporters and contributors are to be commended for their support of this fantastic lemons-to-lemonade effort that displays the South Coast’s abundant arts and culture. The positive collaboration has yielded another mustattend event with a slate of 67 events.

Patti Rego, the District Director of the SouthCoast Chamber, says that this initiative has “far-reaching benefits to all aspects of community life and erases outdated provincial boundaries through collective community engagement.”

SouthCoast Spring Arts agenda includes Viva Fall River, the 2nd Annual We HeART Fall River event, and the FABRIC Arts Festival.

The SouthCoast Spring Arts festival kicks off on Friday, May 6, and continues through Sunday, May 15. It’s a jam packed ten-day event festival that officially kicks off the 2022 art season and offers attendees an opportunity to press the reset button to spring forward.

Jennifer Wolfe Webb, President of the Marion Art Center (MAC), and one of the original organizers and collaborators describes the festival as “a celebration of the arts in the South Coast’s communities that is a diverse and inclusive representation of local arts and cultural organizations, artists, and creative entrepreneurs.”

The MAC Kickoffs with their sponsored Conversation with an Artist, featuring exhibiting artist Paula Stebbins Becker. There’s also the Latin Percussion Concert featuring percussionist Jesús Andujar, to name just two of the organization’s scheduled events.

Other presenting participant businesses and organizations include the Dartmouth Cultural Center, AHA! New Bedford, Craftyish, Fall River Open Studios, South Coast Artists, Hatch Street Studios, the Kilburn Artisan Center, South Coast Surface Design, The Drawing Room, the Westport Art Group, Midori Creativity, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, Narrows Center for the Arts, Onset Bay Association, and the New Bedford Preservation Society to name just a few!

Make sure to attend this presentation of innovative, creative, affordable, and participatory art and cultural events in communities across the South Coast! For more information, visit the event’s website, southcoastspringarts.org, or contact Jennifer Wolfe Webb at jennifer@marionartcenter.org.