By Steve Ritchie
With the 13th edition of the Silverton Fine Arts Festival right around the corner on Aug. 17-18, it’s nervous time for Dwight Berning and Moises Roizen.
Berning and Roizen are the vice president and president, respectively, of the Silverton Arts Association board of directors, and the pair are co-chairing the festival this year.
Even though the festival, which is put on by the art association, is still a few weeks out, Berning and Roizen are working long hours to make sure everything is on track – sponsorship, entertainment, food, free shuttles to the site, volunteers, and, of course, the 86 juried vendors who are at the heart of the event.
“It’s almost a full-time job,” Berning said. “But it’s all volunteer – we’re not being paid at all.”
While both men have served on the arts association board for several years, neither one has served on the festival committee in the past. In fact, the entire group working on the festival is new. Roizen said there was a complete turnover of the fine arts festival committee this year due to a disagreement over whether the festival should operate independently, or be operationally and financially under the control of the association board. When the dispute could not be resolved, the previous committee resigned as a group, and board members stepped in to take over festival organization.
Roizen confirmed that the Silverton Arts Association has struggled financially the last few years, but said the organization remains financially viable, and is implementing plans to increase and diversify the association’s income. Among the specifics he mentioned were operating a booth at Oktoberfest for the first time – selling smoothies – and creating a new fundraiser, A Walk for the Arts, to take place in the fall.
Roizen hopes those two events will replace the art auction which failed to generate much income for the association.
Roizen also mentioned that the Silverton Arts Association is the recipient of a recent $84,000 bequest through the Oregon Cultural Trust, and will receive annual income from the gift – $3,600 for 2012.
The Silverton Fine Arts Festival, though, is the association’s major annual fundraising event, and the two men realize that a successful festival will be key to a brighter future for the organization.
On this day, Berning and Roizen were smiling over the fact that a $1,000 sponsorship was received “at the last minute,” just before the festival program was due to go to the printer. Roizen said that he was “very happy with the sponsorships for the festival.”
Sponsors, who contribute from $100 to $1,000, typically provide about two-thirds of the approximately $15,000 it costs to stage the festival, with vendor fees and food and beverage sales providing most of the additional income.
The festival vendors must go through a jurying process to ensure the items being sold are of high quality and that there is not too much of any one type of item. Berning said that a large number of applications were received and the 86 who were selected represent a very strong group of artists.
“We have (vendors) who come back each year because they enjoy the setting so much,” Berning said.
While Roizen says their lack of previous hands-on experience with the festival leaves them “shooting in the dark” at times, he has been gratified by the supportive response from the community.
“We are really proud that we were able to get a lot more of the community involved (this year) in different aspects of the festival,” Roizen said.
In addition to more local sponsors, including some major in-kind contributors, Roizen gives another example. In the past, he has dressed as famous artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin and interacted with festival-goers in these roles. Now organizers have a new idea they hope will broaden the emphasis beyond the visual arts.
“This year we are having the ‘dead poets’ walking around, and having people read their poetry with them,” Roizen said. “It’s part of the whole idea of creating an artistic environment.”
“The poets are local people connected with the Silverton Poetry Association,” Berning said.
Berning is also very upbeat about the entertainment lineup. While there are no groups who would be considered “big names,” Berning says the music at the festival will be top-notch.
“We will have seven fantastic local musical groups at,” he said. Among those scheduled to perform are classical guitarist Mario Diaz, celtic group Briar Rose, and rockers Billy & the Rockets.
The Silverton Fine Arts Festival has drawn as many as 10,000 people in the past, though Roizen says the downturn in the economy has, in the last few years, reduced attendance.
Marketing for this year’s festival has been bolstered by the professional expertise of art association board member Elise McGowan, who is coordinating the marketing effort, as well as a new emphasis on social media visibility and outreach.
With the future of the association’s educational programs for the community at stake, Roizen is hoping for robust attendance this year, and says his group is doing everything they can to make it all come together.
“Silverton sells itself as the art town,” Roizen mused. “Why not do it as well as we can?”
