IX Art Park attracted about 356,000 visitors in 2021. But only 16,000 of them bought tickets to an event or The Looking Glass, the park’s immersive art experience.
Now, with free events stacked nearly back-to-back throughout the summer, IX will host its biggest ticketed happening of the year. The first Charlottesville Arts Festival, which administrators hope will build on last year’s inaugural Metamorphix Art Festival, kicks off on Friday, May 27, and runs through the weekend.
“We were thinking about it, and Metamorphix is kind of an IXian brand,” says Alex Bryant, the park’s executive director. “This festival is for Charlottesville and about Charlottesville. It’s a bigger thing—and more sustainable.”
Bryant and IX events planner Ewa Harr hope the more expansive festival, which will host nearly 60 artists from central Virginia and beyond, becomes a yearly signature for the park. They’re billing CAF as “a three-day celebration of creativity, diversity, and community providing locals and visitors a chance to immerse themselves in arts of all genres.” That means in addition to the five dozen art vendors featuring paintings, drawings, photography, sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, glass, fiber arts, and tattoo designs, the festival also invites attendees to experience and make art in unique ways.
Charlottesville Arts Festival opens with fire dancing and the unveiling of its portion of the Mural Mosaic Global Roots project. The America Connects National Mural features contributions by more than 1,500 artists across the country. Mural Mosaic, which has been creating public murals since 2003, launched the collaborative project in April 2021 to reconnect folks in the post-pandemic world.
“We’re just really excited about three days of art and activation,” Bryant says. “It’s everything you would expect from an art festival…and it’s also a mural launch. It compounds itself, and everything coalesces in a great way.”
To select the expansive list of artists at the festival, Harr, Bryant and others from the IX Art Park Foundation board formed a panel to sift through applications. The “judging process was terribly challenging due to the high caliber of work from all of our applicants,” Bryant says, and the panel was unable to allow everyone who applied to exhibit.
Harr, who also coordinates the Crozet Arts and Crafts Festival, was central to the selection effort, Bryant says, as she’s personally connected to many of the region’s artists. The result of the panel’s selection process is an eclectic collection of fresh artists, Harr says.
“The thing about IX Art Park is it allows for us to have a wide variety of art—from more traditional printing and photography to funky mixed media—that you wouldn’t see any other place,” Harr says. “We have a lot of artists participating that people have not seen.”
Most of the vendors will display their wares in traditional festival-style tents, according to Bryant, but the Charlottesville Arts Festival will also feature installations in the field stretching across the park, performances, and an outdoor art room for demonstrations and workshops. The goal is to use as much of the available space as possible and make the event “experiential and immersive,” Bryant says.
Among the vendors will be artists Sean McClain, Charlene Cross, Erin Harrigan, Jamie Agins, Jessie Rublee, Michelle Freeman, Rebecca Razul, Sarah Tremaine, Sam Ashkani, Nicole Pisaniello, and Tom Toscano. Food and craft beer will be available throughout the weekend.
Still, Bryant says tickets aren’t what drives the nonprofit IX Art Park Foundation, as festival-style events typically pay only for themselves, with revenues going into the pockets of vendors and other staff. IX hosts only four to five gated events per year, and the foundation’s board hopes even those someday could be made free of charge.
Going forward, the organization hopes to support its 24-hour mural and sculpture art park and community-driven events with small grassroots donations. Bryant says The Looking Glass will remain a critical revenue stream, drawing tourist dollars from outside C’ville to fuel the local art community. Sponsors are also crucial for events like IX’s summer film series.
“We are trying to do as few ticketed events as we can,” Bryant says. “We are growing and giving back to the community. We want to open the doors and be a public art park, 365.”
Charlottesville Arts Festival
Ix Art Park
May 27-29