Jekyll Island Arts Festival to return

WORDS BY LAUREN MCDONALD | PHOTOS BY DERRICK DAVIS

The group of volunteers who organize the Jekyll Island Arts Association’s annual Spring Art Show consider the effort a labor of love.

They meticulously plan each detail of the event, set this year for March 10-12 at historic Goodyear Cottage on Jekyll, and their devotion to creating a memorable three-day festival is evident in the end result.

The Spring Art Show showcases the work of more

Qthan 400 artist members. The show will include indoor and outdoor demonstrations and sales, as well as many family-friendly hands-on activities for kids, including weaving, trying out a potter’s wheel, and the RAKU (a form of Japanese pottery).

“The priority of the Arts Festival and JIAA at large is the opportunity to give the community an exposure to art forms and encourage participation,” says Pam Mueller, a member of the JIAA and an author who will have many books for sale at the event.

Artists are able to submit special pieces to the “juried art” section of the show that will be judged by outside experts in each field. Artists involved are JIAA members and include authors, potters, painters, weavers, and many individual art forms.

Attendees will get to see the artists in action and find works from both experts and beginners for sale. There will also be book signings hosted by numerous authors, including Mueller.

Demonstrations and hands-on activities will be offered each day of the festival.

“We believe that much of the fun in this event is the opportunity to participate, try your hand at weaving, make a dish, paint a picture, or learn paper bead making,” Mueller says. “Visit the weaving room and see what weavers are creating, walk through the pot shop and feel the clay.”

This will be the 49th year of the festival, which is a beloved local event. Many were disappointed when the 2020 show had to be canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and planning for the 2021 festival began slightly later than usual. But this year’s festival is expected to be a return to the event in full force.

“There’s an army of volunteers that pull all this off and people who pour their hearts and souls into this place to make it happen,” says member Christie Kinsey.

When the festival began about five decades ago, it was meant to be an opportunity for members of the arts association to celebrate the artwork they created during winter classes. Many members — then and today — spend winter months on the island and return home in the early spring. The Spring Art Show is a chance to get together one more time before some members depart for the year.

New arts have been added to the festival through the years as well.

Mueller says she remembers when only a few books were featured during the market sales.

“Now we have so many writers who are here,” she says. “I’d say 15 to 20 people have books here, which is really neat.”

The Jekyll Island Arts Association will host its annual Spring Art Show from noon to 5 p.m. March 10; from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 11; and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 12 at Goodyear Cottage on Jekyll Island. Various mediums will be on display and demonstrations will be held. For details, visit jekyllarts.com.

Many of the artists are talented and passionate about their craft, using their years of experience or love for the work to create unique, quality pieces.

The arts association operates out of Goodyear Cottage, built in 1906 for the family of Frank Henry Goodyear, a lumber baron from Buffalo, New York. The house was restored in 1974 and is used today as a space for creative arts, housing the Jekyll Island Arts Association and the Jekyll Island Pottery Guild.

The building is open every day, through volun teer support.

Along with a gallery on the main floor, the cottage has upstairs classroom space and workshops.

In the basement, members of the pottery guild have free rein to work on their craft any time. Beverly Hopkins, Pottery Guild president, described it as a space where other stresses or concerns can, at least temporarily, fade away.

“One of the very first classes I took, I told the instructor it made me forget about every thing else,” Hopkins says. “You’re so focused on what you’re doing, the rest of the world is gone. You’re really focused on what you’re doing. And people find creativity they didn’t know they had.”

Pottery Guild members have a key and can come in whenever they wish to work, Hop kins says. Some early birds spend time at the cottage soon after the sun rises, while others wander in during the afternoons and eve nings.

Some of the pieces created in their workshop will be among the many on display during the Spring Art Show.

This year’s festival will also feature a children’s play area, live music, as well as grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.

Every facet and detail of the event is meant to demonstrate the devotion of JIAA members and their love for art.

“You feel the energy when you come into one of these shows,” Mueller says. “It’s wonderful. This is all a work of love. All art is a work of love.”