THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506080182
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 188 lines
THIRTY-NINE YEARS ago this month, two dozen artists propped their best canvases up on easels along a four-block stretch of the Virginia Beach Boardwalk.
With bright, but humble beginnings, the Boardwalk Art Show grew steadily in size and prestige over the years, and tonight it explodes into a veritable smorgasbord for the senses.
``Boardwalk '95'' is a 10-day celebration of the visual and performing arts featuring a fireworks competition, a hands-on arts fest for kids, multicultural musical performances for all ages, food from around the world and (of course) the four-day multi-media art exhibit and juried show.
Almost everything takes place along the oceanfront Boardwalk and in its adjacent parks, with some musical groups appearing in the nearby Pavilion and arts center. Organizers expect 600,000 to attend.
The expansion of what had been a four-day art show into this year's extravaganza came about, in part, because the 40th anniversary of the Boardwalk Art Show falls handily in place just a year after the happening's status in the art world reached a pinnacle: Best Outdoor Juried Show in the mid-Atlantic states.
But organizers also took inspiration from Spoleto Festival, U.S.A., a Charleston, S.C., arts event which has culturally and economically revitalized both city and state.
Last fall, community leaders from throughout Hampton Roads gathered and took the challenge to create an areawide event to rival Charleston's.
``We'd been talking about making a festival built around the show for three or four years, and greater numbers wanted it, so a task force was formed,'' said Sharon Banks, special projects coordinator at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts. ``We felt it was a landmark year, but it was more serendipity.''
The eyes - and ears - will have it tonight as the festival lifts off with displays of fireworks booming, then blossoming in pyrotechnic color out over the Atlantic. Leading fireworks companies from three states will compete for the $15,000 prize during the three-night, third annual North American Fireworks Competition.
``It was just a stroke of luck and brilliance'' that the date for the fireworks competition was moved ahead this year, said Banks. ``It gets us off to a great start.'' The first two annual shoot-outs were held on Memorial Day weekend.
The fireworks begin at 9:30 tonight, Saturday and Sunday and can be viewed from the sand, Boardwalk, oceanfront hotels and restaurants between 3rd and 40th streets. The presentations are set to music, which is carried along the Boardwalk and oceanfront by a public address system.
Children won't have to be told ``don't touch'' during Sunday's hands-on international arts festival for kids which also features musical performances geared to the younger crowd.
``ArtZoned: Kidz at Work'' will feature group and individual arts projects in a number of disciplines. Youngsters will have the opportunity to help create mosaics, add their own special needlework to fabric stretched onto a 6- by 12-foot loom and use found objects to create an ``octopus garden'' coral collage on a leafless bush.
For take-homes, children can learn how to draw cartoons and design and execute book marks, lapel buttons, Styrofoam relief prints, tissue flowers and tooled foil pins.
Kids may also compete in the ``Design a Vacation Postcard'' contest and watch local professional artists demonstrate techniques in ceramics, oil painting, water color, oil pastel, basket weaving, calligraphy and other media. Organizers hope to convince city officials to adopt winning postcards for printing and sale as an extension of the contest.
``ArtZoned'' will take place between noon and 6 p.m. in the 24th Street park.
More than 50 performing arts groups will make music and entertain with dance during the course of the festival.
The musical offerings are multicultural and include Reggae, Caribbean, Andean, country and folk, jazz and blues and progressive.
In addition, the Virginia Symphony and Virginia Dance Theatre will perform as well as the Commonwealth Musical Theatre and the Virginia Stage Company.
Lending yet more multiculturalism to ``Boardwalk '95'' will be Spanish flamenco dancers and a Mexican folkloric ballet company.
Themes for the performing arts are Monday - theater, Tuesday - blues, Wednesday - rock, Thursday - jazz and big band, Friday - country and folk and Saturday and Sunday - international arts.
Twenty-five food vendors will cater to festival goers in food courts near 16th and 23rd streets.
Gastronomical delights from around the world will be featured.
More visual treats are in store during the festival's four-day grand finale June 15 through 18 when premier artists from every state in the nation as well as Canada display their work from 18th to 32nd streets along the Boardwalk.
The show was named the best outdoor show in the mid-Atlantic states and one of the top 20 in the nation by Sunshine Artist magazine.
On display will be the finest work of 450 artists narrowed from a field of 800.
Competing for prize money totaling $25,000 in the juried Boardwalk Art Show will be artists in the fields of painting, drawing, graphics, sculpture, photography, mixed media, ceramics, jewelry and fiber.
Judges for this year's show are Terri Sultan, curator of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington; Ken Botnick, director of the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina; and Peter Frank, editor for Visions art quarterly and critic for the L.A. Weekly and the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Show hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. Artwork may be purchased directly from exhibitors.
``Our big mission was to serve, and we've created something never before done,'' said Josephine Mooney, publicist for the arts center. ``It's innovative - the performing arts pulled together in Virginia Beach.''
The Boardwalk Art Show - and now its attendant festival of all the arts - is so important that it could be the nucleus for an areawide festival which might extend the tourist season into May or even April, said James Babcock, co-chair for Plan 2007, an economic visioning group for Hampton Roads.
``If we borrowed anything from Spoleto, it's the idea that tourism connects with the arts,'' Babcock said. MEMO: [For a related story, see page 9 of the BEACON for this date.]
BOARDWALK '95
A 10-day festival of the arts in honor of the 40th anniversary of the
Boardwalk Art Show runs through June 18.
Today.
8 p.m. - 40th Anniversary Gala with The Embers, Virginia Beach Center
for the Arts. $40 per person.
9:30 p.m. - Third annual North American Fireworks Competition,
oceanfront. Free.
Saturday.
5 to 9:15 p.m. - International Arts Showcase, music and performing
arts (Caribbean, South American, Far Eastern), 17th and 24th street
parks. Free.
9:30 p.m. - Fireworks competition, oceanfront. Free.
Sunday.
Noon to 6 p.m. - ArtZoned: Kidz at Work, a children's art fest, 24th
Street park. Free.
7 p.m. - Virginia Symphony Concert, Pavilion. Admission charged.
9:30 p.m. - Fireworks competition, oceanfront. Free.
Monday.
Noon to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m. - Theater Showcase. Music and
performing arts, 17th and 24th street parks. Free.
Tuesday.
Noon to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m. - Blues Showcase. Music and
performing arts, 17th and 24th street parks. Free.
Wednesday.
Noon to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m. - Rock Showcase, 17th and 24th
street parks. Featuring Little Feat at 7 p.m. at 24th Street park.
Free.
Thursday.
8 p.m. - 40th Birthday Bash. Virginia Beach Center for the Arts.
Featuring ``Fighting Gravity'' and ``Too Skinnee J's.'' Admission
charged.
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. - 40th annual Boardwalk Art show, 18th to 32nd
streets. Free.
2 to 10 p.m. - Jazz and Big Band Showcase, 17th and 24th street
parks. Free.
Friday.
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. - 40th annual Boardwalk Art Show, 18th to 32nd
streets. Free.
2 to 10 p.m. - Country/Folk Showcase, 17th and 24th street parks.
Free.
Saturday.
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. - 40th annual Boardwalk Art Show, 18th to 32nd
streets. Free.
2 to 10 p.m. - International Arts Showcase, 17th and 24th street
parks. Free.
Sunday.
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. - 40th annual Boardwalk Art show, 18th to 32nd
streets. Free.
2 to 10 p.m. - International Arts Showcase, 17th and 24th street
parks. Free.
ILLUSTRATION: BEAT A PATH TO THE BOARDWALK
[Color Photo]
Staff file photos
ABOVE: In 1956 photo, a trio of artists set up shop outside an
Oceanfront hotel. RIGHT: It didn't take long for the event to catch
on along the Boardwalk, near the 15th Street pier.
Staff file photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY
This sculpture by W.R. Bingler Jr., priced at $100, was titled
``Dead Letter Box'' in the 1977 show.
Staff file photos
LEFT: Photography by Kenyatta Ray won best-in-show in 1988. ABOVE:
Susan Pelletier's clay and pastels were featured in 1994.
``Music in Motion: Earth Moves,'' a choreographed production, will
be on the 24th Street Stage at 12:45 p.m. on Sunday.
by CNB