Columbia Festival of the Arts Announces 2010 Season Line-Up
The Columbia Festival of the Arts is pleased to announce its 2010 season, which includes a variety of regional, national and international performers to delight audiences of all ages. The Festival will run from Friday, June 11 through Saturday, June 26.
June 11 – 13: LakeFest Celebration
• Friday, June 11: 5:00 – 11:00. Visual arts activities and performances at Columbia Town Center lakefront
• Saturday, June 12: 11:00 – 11:00. The day kicks off with the 7th Annual Kinetic Art Parade along Little Patuxent Parkway, followed by a day filled with visual arts activities and performances at lakefront
• Sunday, June 13: 12:00 – 7:00. Visual arts activities and performances at lakefront
LakeFest Highlights
• June 11th
o 5:00 – 9:00 Outdoor ArtPark Fine Arts & Crafts Show & Sale
o 5.00 Unveiling of “Summer Times” Community Art Project Exhibit
o 5:00 2010 K-12 Poster Contest Exhibit
o 5:00 – 7:00 BookFest - Children’s stories and crafts with Miss Elizabeth from the Howard County Library
o 5:00 – 11:00 Lakefront Musical Performances featuring a variety of musical groups. Headlining will be Scythian, a Celtic/World music group based in Washington, D.C.
• June 12th
o 10:00 – 7:00 Chalk-It-Up Contest
o 11:00 - 7th Annual Kinetic Art Parade
o Noon – 6:30 BookFest - Poetry, Prose, and Process featuring local and regional writers
o Noon – 7:00 Indoor ArtPark Fine Arts & Crafts Show & Sale
o Noon – 9:00 Outdoor ArtPark Fine Arts & Crafts Show & Sale
o Noon – 7:00 Maryland Wine tastings at Indoor ArtPark
o 12:30 – 7:30 KidzArts Tent
o 12:30 7th Annual Howard County Boat Float Parade of Boats
o Noon – 11:00 Lakefront Musical Performances featuring a variety of musical groups. Headlining will be soul blues stylings of Eric Lindell
• June 13th
o 10:00 – 5:00 Chalk-It-Up Contest
o Noon – 6:30 BookFest - Poetry, Prose, and Process featuring local and regional writers
o Noon – 7:00 ArtPark Fine Arts & Crafts Show & Sale
o Noon – 7:00 Maryland Wine tastings at Indoor ArtPark
o Noon – 7:00 Lakefront Musical Performances featuring a variety of musical groups and the annual closing performance by the Glenelg Jazz Ensemble with guest artist
o 12:30 – 6:30 KidzArts Tent
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A Collecting Affair III! Celebrating the Art of Collecting
Presented in Partnership with the Columbia Art Center
A Collecting Affair was first introduced in 2008 to promote art collecting, featuring local collectors and the artists they collect. This year the collecting exhibit continues with a brand new focus: Artists as Collectors of Photography. Local artists have selected a photograph from their own collections and share their dual viewpoints as both artist and collector.
Columbia Art Center Galleries
Tuesday, June 15, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. – Wine & Cheese Reception Open to the Public
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A Story of Floating Weeds
A Silent Film by Yasujiro Ozo (1934, black & white)
Accompanied by GRAMMY® Nominee Alex de Grassi
Presented in Partnership with Howard Community College
Often cited as one of the world’s top fingerstyle, steel-string guitarists, GRAMMY® nominee Alex de Grassi brings a unique voice to the art of acoustic guitar with his evocative compositions and arrangements, a highly-orchestrated sound, and sheer virtuosity.
For this event, de Grassi will perform his original score in accompaniment to the 1934 silent film, A Story of Floating Weeds by Yasujiro Ozu, a critically acclaimed account of a group of traveling actors drifting aimlessly, seemingly carried by currents beyond their control.
Smith Theatre
Wednesday, June 16, 7:30 p.m.
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“My Favorite Poem” High Tea
Presented in Partnership with the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society
Community leaders read their favorite poems at an elegant High Tea in the ballroom at Historic Oakland Manor as part of a national program entitled the “Favorite Poem Project.” Founded by Robert Pinsky, the 39th U.S. Poet Laureate, the Project is dedicated to celebrating, documenting and promoting poetry's role in Americans' lives, and has inspired hundreds of Favorite Poem readings in cities and towns across the country. Stanley Plumly, Maryland Poet Laureate, will close the reading.
Historic Oakland Manor
Thursday, June 17, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Ticket includes Afternoon High Tea
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FREE – Exhibits & Open Mic Night
Presented in partnership with the Howard County Arts Council
Gallery I – Resident Visual Artists Exhibit 2010
Gallery II – Joseph Van Kerkhove & Kristin Kowalski
Kick off the evening by checking out the artwork of HCAC’s resident artists, as well as ceramic pieces by Kristin Kowalski and prints by Joseph Van Kerkhove. Then mingle with the residents in their studios from 7 - 8 p.m.
Howard County Art Council
Wine & Cheese Reception, June 17, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Black Box Open Mic 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Your evening continues with a fantastic show hosted by Mo Dutterer featuring local singers, actors, poets, and musicians. The performer who receives the most votes from the audience wins a People’s Choice Award.
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Preservation Hall Jazz Band
For more than 50 years they’ve been the international torchbearers for traditional New Orleans Jazz. While their ranks have launched living legends such as famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett and clarinet virtuoso George Lewis, today’s lineup of this American legacy is no less impressive under the direction of the original founders’ youngest son, Ben Jaffe. Their award-winning, high energy style will have you on your feet clapping, dancing and parading in the aisles!
Rouse Theatre
Friday, June 18, 8:00 p.m.
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Winner’s Circle Comedy Tour
Featuring Last Coming Standing Winners John Heffron, Jon Reep, & Iliza Schlesinger
Get ready for an evening of uproarious stand-up comedy from three of America’s most successful comics and winner’s of NBC’s reality show “Last Comic Standing.” Starring John Heffron (Season 2), John Reep (Season 5) and Iliza Schlesinger (Season 6).
Rouse Theatre
Saturday, June 19, 8:00 p.m.
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FREE – “A Literary Reading”
A Poetry and Fiction Reading and Reception
Presented in partnership with the Little Patuxent Review
The Little Patuxent Review literary magazine will hold a reading celebrating the publication of its summer issue, dedicated to the memory of cherished Columbia poet Lucille Clifton. Poets, fiction writers and essayists will read their work. Visual artists Joyce Scott and Nichole Hickey are featured in this issue. A reception will follow.
Oliver’s Carriage House, 5410 Leaf Treader Way, Columbia
Sunday, June 20, 2:00 – 4:00 P.M.
Capacity limited - For reservations, call 410-715-3089
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FREE – Cinema Columbia
Following the success of our inaugural community-based film project, Cinema Columbia returns with an all new format. The Festival is challenging all aspiring filmmakers to create and submit an original short film to be screened during the Festival. The only requirement is that the film including one artistic discipline included in the Festival’s 2010 season.
Film Screening – Monday, June 21, 7:00 p.m.
Monteabaro Hall, The Horowitz Center at Howard Community College
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Reading and Wine & Cheese Reception with
Novelist Sheila Kohler
Presented in partnership with the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society
“Becoming Jane Eyre is lush and filled with dark sensuality and the tension of unsaid things. … Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books and Sheila Kohler is one of my favorite writers.”
Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
South African-born Sheila Kohler will read and talk about her new work, Becoming Jane Eyre, which begins in the dark room where Charlotte Brontë sits beside her ill father, gathering the rage to write Jane Eyre, and follows the writer through her memories to pen her masterpiece. A movie based on another of Kohler’s seven novels, Cracks, opens in U.S. theaters this year after debuting at the Toronto Film Festival.
The Rouse Company Foundation Student Services Hall – Rm. 400
Howard Community College
Tuesday, June 22, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.
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“Man 1, Bank 0”
Direct from a sold-out run spanning New York’s Times Square to the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, Patrick Combs tells the amazing-but-true story of how he deposited, and cashed, a junk-mail check marked ‘non-negotiable’ in the amount of $95,093. What started as a prank erupted into a staggering and funny David vs. Goliath-like adventure eliciting astonishing legal twists and worldwide media coverage. Will have you screaming with laughter!
Smith Theater
Wednesday, June 23, 7:30 p.m.
Arrive early to enjoy the “Picturing America” exhibit. See details below.
FREE
Picturing America 1930 – 1960
Presented in Partnership with Howard Community College
This traveling exhibit of 43 photographs from the Baltimore Museum of Art features the photography of the great American photographers of the mid-20th Century, including Bernice Abbott, Margaret Bourke White, Harry Callahan, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Dorothea Lange, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Gordon Parks, and Edward Weston.
Reception - Wednesday, June 23
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beatlegras
Bands have been covering Beatles tunes for decades, but none like this talented trio. Imagine the music of the Fab Four shaken up with infusions of bluegrass and jazz, and topped off with a classical twist. The result: a satisfying musical cocktail called beatlegras. Their fresh, all acoustic renditions will have you singing along. Don’t miss this exceptional evening under the stars.
Belmont Conference Center
Outdoor lawn seating, bring your own blankets and chairs. In the event of rain, tent seating available.
Thursday, June 24
6:00 p.m. dinner and
7:00 p.m. performance
(visit www.columbiafestival.com for menu)
For other summer events at Belmont visit www.belmontconferencecenter.com
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Parsons Dance
The sexy athleticism, exuberant personality and joyous movement that is Parsons Dance depicts a fusion of the gesture and movement that make up the modern dance vocabulary, and the discipline and precise execution one expects from a classical company. Among the evening’s program are In The End, a full-throttle piece set to the highly popular music of Dave Matthews Band, and Caught, an unforgettable stroboscopic tour-de-force featuring a solo dancer defying gravity and flying above the stage.
Rouse Theatre
Friday, June 25, 8:00 p.m.
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Arlo Guthrie
The eldest son of singer/writer/philosopher Woody Guthrie and dancer Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, it is said Arlo Guthrie was born with a guitar in one hand and a harmonica in the other. His first public performance was at age 13, and he quickly became involved in the music that was shaping the world during the 1960s. His career exploded in 1967 with the release of “Alice’s Restaurant,” whose title song premiered at the Newport Folk Festival and helped foster a renewed commitment among the '60s generation to social consciousness and activism. The rest is musical history. With millions of fans and sold-out performances worldwide, he is coming to Columbia for the first time and for one night only. Don’t miss it!
Rouse Theatre
Saturday, June 26, 8:00 p.m.
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SPECIAL EVENT – AN EVENING WITH The Second City Improv All Stars
Black Tie & Bathtub Gin
Friday, May 14, 2010
Spear Center, Columbia, MD
6:30 – 10:30 p.m.
Join us for a 1920s inspired evening as we enjoy all things Chicago. Slick down your hair and wear your buckle shoes. Gangers, Gun Molls and G-Men are welcome.
On Friday, May 14, The Second City Improv All Stars will bring their own unique brand of improvisational comedy to the Spear Center in Columbia for an evening that includes a classic gin martini, hors d’oeuvres, and formal dinner catered by Linwoods.
The Second City is the leading brand in improv-based sketch comedy. With theatres in Chicago and Toronto, Training Centers in those cites as well as Hollywood, The Second City has been called "A Comedy Empire" by the New York Times.
Tickets are $150 each or $1500 to sponsor a table of 10 for an all inclusive evening. For additional information and/or to purchase tickets, please call 410-715-3044. Tickets are not available online.
Performances are subject to change based on tour schedules or other reasons beyond the control of the Columbia Festival of the Arts.
Festival tickets will go on sale to the public on April 30. For additional information, visit the web site at www.columbiafestival.com or call 410-715-3044.
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