BG Reports

Although the community gets to come and participate in, and enjoy all that the Black Swamp Arts Festival has to offer. It sometimes helps to know the amount of work that is put into the event to further appreciate it.

The artist tent line on main street. Photo was taken by JD Pooley/ Sentinel-Tribune

Brady Gaskins has participated in the festival for a few years now and has been in charge of the artist at work station for three years. A lot goes into the preparation for the festival. Brady’s job started six months ago when he began his search and contacting different artists who may have been interested in participating. Once the artists are booked the final preparations include making sure there are tents, chairs, tables and anything else the artist may need. Gaskins added, “oh yea, and I’m trying to get some good sleep.” He said that most committee members will spend most of the weekend downtown with late nights and early mornings.

While Brady isn’t an artist he explained that the artist at work area is sort of a hands community art project. “Participating artists for this year include woodcarvers, water colorist, acrylic painters, sculptors, glass bead makers and potters. Who will demonstrate, answer questions and share knowledge of how they take raw material and turn them into art,” Gaskins said. The station will be located at the windmill mural parking lot on South Main Street.

The Black Swamp Arts Festival has played a role in the cities fall activites since its beginings in downtown Bowling Green in 1993. It was first put together by the local business owners and members of the city as a way to show case the local artists. Since then the festival has certainly expanded and continues to grow with each coming year.

Most of the communities members have gone and enjoyed the activities, music, art and food that the festival has to offer. However, little maybe known about the work that is behind the good time.

“We have some new artist this year, so I am excited to see the reaction of the folks,” Gaskins said.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Black Swamp Arts Festival, Student Contributor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.