CFCArts’ series of Valentine’s Day big-band concerts will be presented in two formats: one that encourages dancing and the other a more traditional concert experience. | Courtesy Central Florida Community Arts (CFCArts)
The Winter Park Arts & Culture Alliance isn’t just being metaphoric by subtitling its second annual Arts Weekend “A Tapestry of Experiences.” This time, the four-day celebration will enlist the public to help create a visual tribute to the city’s rich cultural heritage.
It will be a hands-on project meant to demonstrate how individual and group histories are—quite literally—woven into the fabric of the community. Here’s how it will be stitched together:
In the month leading up to this year’s sophomore event, physical tapestries will be on display at four area locations: the Winter Park Library, the Winter Park History Museum, the Center for Health & Wellbeing and the Hannibal Square Heritage Center. Each tapestry will be themed to the host facility’s specific mission and focus.
Visitors will be able to put their own stamp on the woven works by affixing personal items that they bring from home; if they arrive empty-handed, materials will be provided for them.
A fifth tapestry—this one with an American flag motif—will be created during Arts Weekend. That theme dovetails nicely with the city’s ongoing involvement in marking America250—a bipartisan initiative led by the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission.
Apart from the tapestry project, Arts Weekend will again be structured around performances and exhibitions staged by the alliance’s membership of nonprofit arts organizations—a roster that’s now up to 24 with the recent addition of Central Florida Community Arts (CFCArts).
The festivities will get underway Thursday, February 5, at the Center for Health & Wellbeing, with a keynote speech about the importance of the arts in fostering good mental health among the young. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m.; the speaker had not been announced at press time.
Friday night will bring a concert by local singer and actress Jasmine Forsberg, who in less than a decade has grown from appearing in a spoof of Dora the Explorer at the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival to starring in the Broadway sensation Six.
Forsberg will take to the main stage in Central Park at 7 p.m. to perform a program of show tunes and pop numbers presented by Central Florida Vocal Arts. Don’t forget to bring your blanket.
Saturday afternoon’s “Art in the Park”—also in Central Park—will offer more performances by area ensembles, musical and otherwise, plus interactive activities designed to bring out the nascent creative in us all. (It’s also when the American flag tapestry will be created.) The event will run from noon to 3 p.m.
And all day on Sunday, Winter Parkers and out-of-towners alike are invited to stroll Park Avenue and its environs and visit the many museums, gardens and other venues that give the city its distinctive cultural vibe.
Many museums will offer free admission for the weekend as well as special exhibitions and performances. The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, for example, will waive admission fees on all four days, while the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens is planning a one-time-only display of rare gold coins.
Once again, area restaurants and retailers are expected to offer discount specials as an added enticement. And if you should happen to miss any or all of it, the flag tapestry will remain on display after the weekend is over, at a location to be determined.
Because whether you’re a resident or just an American who lives outside of the 32789, you could probably use the occasional reminder that our lives have a common thread. Arts Weekend will be sponsored by the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation and AdventHealth Winter Park.
For a full schedule of events and an up-to-the-minute list of participating businesses, call or visit the website.
