Arts in the Park is tomorrow (Saturday) from 9 am to 2 pm. The market pavilion will be packed with the market and with the arts. We’ll have music, drama, and artists at work. John Fitzgibbon will demonstrate watercolor, John Biggs will sketch, two plein air artists, Jessie McCormick and Heather Grills, will paint scenes as they happen tomorrow. Resa Amos of Amos Apiaries will spin and weave while Christina Lorenzen of Made of Clay will throw pots.Kyle McKenzie, a Webb City native who teaches art at MSSU, PSU and the global campus of the University of Arkansas, will be on hand until 11 with some of his work to visit with folks about art. Another Webb City native, Ryan McCoy, will sell his photographs. Market volunteer Rick Ford will have photos from the market for sale and April Davis, Carthage artist, will sell affordable reproductions of her market paintings. We’ll also have our jewelers and glass artists who sell on at the Second Saturday Art Market during the summer.
At 9:30 Southern Theatre from MSSU will perform highlights of their upcoming production, The Rogue’s Trial.
The musical lineup includes Rob Pommert on classical guitar and the Southwest Missouri Suzuki Strings. Singers with the Heartland Opera will showcase highlights from HOT Scandals, playing now in Joplin. Some cool jazz follows with A Sure Thing featuring Rebecca Lueber on vocals. We’ll finish up with the wonderful bluegrass group Brightwater Junction. They last played in Webb City during Mining Days several years ago.
(In the small world category, you may notice that Arts in the Park is held in the pavilion built by Mining Days and happens on the same weekend. I guess we just can’t keep from partying in September.)
There’ll be lots of free activities for kids – and adults are also welcome to try their hand at clay play, veggie art, beach in a bottle and making a monarch butterfly window cling. The activities have different start and end times but they should all be going from 10 to noon.
Arts in the Park is sponsored by the Friends of the Webb City Park, which operates as a subcommittee of the Park Board. For $5 in annual dues, members get a free drink at Arts in the Park and newsletters about park doings four times a year. Friends of the Park also organizes the Polar Bear Express, tentatively set for the first two Saturdays in December, and helps with the Spring Egg Hunt in King Jack Park. Folks can join the Friends or renew their membership at Arts in the Park.
Volunteers will staff breakfast and lunch tomorrow. Folks making a purchase at the food booth can enter the One Good Meal Deserves Another drawing for meals from the Webb City Domino’s Pizza and Culvers.
Arts in the Park is made possible by grants from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, by MSSU and by Cardinal Scale. No park board funds are used to stage the event and all funds raised go to the Park Board.
Tomorrow should be a terrific day, but today will have its charms, too – and peaches. The Pates won’t be at the market tomorrow. I guess it being their 50th anniversary is a pretty good excuse. Lunch Friday is ham steak, scalloped potatoes, peas, cake and drink for $6. Gospel Strings plays.
Next week the Exchange Club runs Cooking for a Cause and gives the profits to Healing the Family.
Next Friday the third graders from Eugene Field make their annual field trip to the market.
A week from tomorrow is the market’s first Live Fit Day. Local hospitals, health stores and organizations will be doing everything from blood pressure checks to body fat measurements, plus providing lots of information. The Parks and Recreation Department will be there to tell you about opportunities for active living in the parks and the Dogwood Trailblazers will have walking information. Vickie Fuller, culinary arts instructor at the Southwest Missouri Area Career Center, will demonstrate a healthy pasta dish using market chicken and vegetables.
September is the last month of the market’s regular season, but as you can tell, we’re not exactly winding down. There is still lots to buy and do at the market. See you soon!
