Art Worth Festival will have its inaugural event Oct. 21- 23 at the Will Rogers Memorial Center Lawn.
The event will include visual art displays from 60 artists, live demonstrations and classical music from The Lotus Saxophone Quartet and other groups.
Greg Belz, 67, executive director of ArtWorks Foundation, is from Memphis, Tennessee. He hit a ceiling doing shows in his home state and wanted to do a show somewhere with more density and a greater appreciation for the arts.
Originally, Belz was looking for an indoor venue in Dallas for a series of specialized art events — until he noticed the Will Rogers Center Lawn. He usually doesn’t like doing outdoor events but immediately wanted to do an event in that space.
The ArtWorks Foundation has done multiple shows in Tennessee, but Belz has faced challenges getting high-caliber artists to come to his shows because of the location.
“I would like to do more shows all over the country, and there are artists of a really high caliber that won’t come to do a show because of where I live that will come to a market like Fort Worth,” he said.
This festival will have the same focus on visual arts as the Main Street Arts Festival but won’t be as loud and busy, Beltz said.
“It’s just a quieter, more focused, laid-back art festival,” he said. “We never intended for it to be as big as Main Street.”
If you go
Time: 10 a.m.-6 p.m
Date: Oct. 21 – 23
Location: Will Rogers Memorial Center Lawn
Tickets: Free
Dallas-based, kiln-formed glass artist Larry Pile, 64, is one of 60 artists at the festival and will showcase his glass weaves, glass vessels and some sculptural work. He has 22 years of experience in stained glass and kiln-formed glass making.
Pile had to submit pictures of his work and the booth that he would use for the festival to the Art Worth jury to be chosen to participate in this event.
“That’s good, that helps everybody, [It means] a range of high-quality art [will be at] this inaugural festival. They seem to be picking some of the best of the best,” Pile said.
Art Worth will give out eight cash prizes between $500 to $1,000 for participating artists based on their execution, body of work and display. Winners will automatically be invited back for next year’s show. In addition, the best of show will receive a free exhibition space.
Classical 101.1 listeners will also vote for the top musical performance out of the three musical groups performing during the event.The winner will get a $500 cash prize.
“You get to meet the artist and interact with the artist and buy the work directly,” Pile said. “Not all festivals do that. The high-end ones do and this is one of those.”
The personal aspect is something that Beltz wanted to provide at this festival. He wants people to be able to ask questions about the skills and techniques that are used to make the art on display.
“I want [the festival] to be a community event. It’s not like the circus has come to town,” Beltz said. “We really want to be part of Fort Worth.”
Juan Salinas II is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at juan.salinas@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter.
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