ARTreach Festival Returns To Long Reach Village Center in June

The Howard County Arts Council has announced the return of ARTreach, a free, outdoor, community arts festival at the Long Reach Village Center on June 4, 2022 from 11 am to 7 pm.

From world music to watercolor, ARTreach has something for everyone! Talk with artists from a variety of disciplines and watch them practice their craft. Participate in drop-in, hands-on arts activities for all ages. Listen to a lively selection of world music by regional performing artists. Be entertained by stilt walkers, magicians, mimes, balloon twisters and more.

Musical performances include Cultura Plenera (11 am); DOGO du Togo (12:45 pm); the JoGo Project (2:15 pm); Cheick Hamala Diabate (3:30 pm); Ocho de Bastos (4:45 pm); and AZTEC SUN (6 pm). Attendees can also enjoy children's performances by Beale Street Puppets. At 12:15 PM, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball and Council Chair Opel Jones (invited) will welcome the crowd from the main stage. A detailed schedule is available on the ARTreach website, artreachfestival.org.

Visual arts demonstrations scheduled to date include: ceramics and fused glass with the Columbia Association Art Center; silhouette-cutting with Silhouettes by Hand; and Chinese brush painting through the Columbia Sister Cities program. Soul & Ink will be onsite with their mobile screen-printing press to make free festival tote bags for the first 350 attendees. The Arts Council will lead tours of the Long Reach Artist Studios periodically throughout the afternoon. Free festival insulated totes are available to the first 200 people to bring a non-perishable food donation for the Howard County Food Bank, and The Long Reach Community Association will hand out free pollinator plants while supplies last.

In addition to enjoying performances and demonstrations, festivalgoers can participate in a variety of free hands-on activities. Among these are piñata-making with Artesanas from the Creative Alliance; poetry with HoCoPoLitSo; tie-dye t-shirt-making with Roll Up N Dye; puppet-making with Beale Street Puppets and more. There will also be free face-painting, henna painting, caricatures, and a photo booth. DoodleHatch and African Art Musuem of Maryland will open their doors for free for the day. Food will be available to purchase from Village Center restaurants and festival food trucks, and artworks by local artists will be on display in the Columbia Art Center Galleries.

The arts are vital to building positive, thriving places to live, work, and play. ARTreach is produced by Howard County Government and the Howard County Arts Council, in partnership with African Art Museum of Maryland; Columbia Association; Columbia Association Art Center; Columbia Festival of the Arts; DoodleHatch; The Village of Long Reach; Opel Jones, Howard County Council; and Roll Up N Dye.

To learn more or to get involved, contact 410-313-ARTS (2787) or hcacoutreach@hocoarts.org, visit artreachfestival.org, and follow ARTreach on Facebook: facebook.com/artreachfest and Instagram: @artreachfest.