Artist vendors who participated in the recent Sebastian Fine Arts & Music Festival experienced Mother Nature at her very best and worst during what should have been a two-day, weekend event.
On Saturday, the skies were a bright blue and brilliant sunshine staved off the slight chill in the air, as crowds made their way to the Sebastian waterfront near Riverview Park to peruse the works of some 90 talented artists from around the state. However, Sunday’s forecasted torrential rainstorms put a halt to the second day of activities, leaving procrastinators to wait until next year.
This was the 20th anniversary of the festival, founded by the late Lisanne Robinson. Its operation was taken up by other volunteer board members after her untimely death in 2018.
“We try to promote cultural art awareness in the Sebastian River area,” said Robert Johnson, the nonprofit’s board president and a jeweler with wife Lynn. “We do a lot with the schools.”
Funds raised at the event go toward scholarships and grants for local school projects, and they also try to keep students engaged through participation at the weekend event.
For example, Johnson said they used one school’s Culinary Arts program to cater the Saturday morning artists’ breakfast, and lacrosse teams have helped out with parking.
“These days we’ve been asking them to apply or give us a request for certain projects. We want them to tell us what they need,” said Johnson. “We’ve done a few of those this year. For example, Pelican Island Elementary did a pumpkin carving thing this October so we bought all the pumpkins. Little things like that.”
Johnson said the organization works to promote community interest in the arts and, while they have attempted to work on public art projects, they have had difficulties getting their ideas approved.
“We came very close one time with an image for some signage, but it got nixed,” said Johnson, adding that they would love to see murals in Sebastian, or some Art in Public Places venues.
“We’d be all for it and would probably help fund it as well.”
In the meantime, the group’s main focus is the annual festival, which included a wide array of artist categories, including drawing, photography, painting, sculpture, glass, jewelry, mixed-media, pottery, leather/fiber and wood.
Artists were more than happy to oblige patrons, taking time to chat, discuss their varied techniques, answer questions and, of course, ring up sales.
Many attendees took a break from their shopping to sit in a tented area set with tables to nosh on food-truck options, while others sat on bleachers in front of the band shell to listen to musical entertainment by Sleepin’ Dogz in the morning and String Assassins in the afternoon.
Additionally, the Cultural Council of Indian River County had an informational booth on the myriad cultural opportunities in the county, and representatives of the H.A.L.O. No-Kill Shelter manned the beer and wine tent, with proceeds benefiting the shelter.
Photos by Kaila Jones
