A NEW YEAR & THE FUTURE OF THE SILVERTON ARTS FESTIVAL
Happy New Year! We hope it’s been a good holiday season for you. 2023 was certainly a big year for Silverton Arts. Here’s a review of just a few highlights:
Our public school program served over 900 students.
Programming at the Art Center now includes grant-subsidized classes and workshops (Art for All!).
We offered many diverse classes and workshops including Zentangle Drawing, Comics, Acrylic Painting, Creature Design, and Stained Glass.
We ran the first annual Silver Falls Film Fest to kick off our Arts Festival in August.
Visitors continue to enjoy free access to art supplies and a comfortable community arts space throughout the year at the Art Center, hosted through our Resident Artist program (come visit us during open hours, 10am-1pm, Wed-Sun!).
This is all partly made possible by a new roof and HVAC system we successfully funded through local and regional support!
Students at work in our recent Winter Art Camp
Volunteers assist with moving Tonya Smithburg’s mural from the Art Center (now on permanent display outside the Silver Falls Public Libray).
What’s Next?
In 2024, we’ll continue to improve the Art Center — restoring its exterior through a combination of grant funding and community effort. We’ll offer more quality programming like our sold-out Winter Art Exploration series. We’re actively developing a robust summer art camp for youth, and plan many more quality workshops and classes for adults, too. It’s good stuff.
These offerings are essential to our ongoing mission to promote, encourage, and exhibit the arts in Silverton!
This brings us to the Arts Festival — a beloved event that requires a significant outlay of man hours throughout the year (around 1,500). Because we are a volunteer-run organization, that’s more than our small board of six can juggle in 2024 while prioritizing our renewed programming and Art Center repairs.
We’re exploring several paths forward, but one thing is certain: To continue offering the Arts Festival, we need additional volunteers for a dedicated Festival Committee, and a paid event manager. If you’re a member of our community who values the Arts Festival and wants to help keep it going, please get in touch!
Visitors gather for the first annual Silver Falls Film Festival — kicking off the Silverton Arts Festival — August 2023.