Octagon Art Festival to feature over 100 artists

Photos courtesy of the Octagon Center for the Arts

Press release
Octagon Center for the Arts

(Sept. 20, 2011) The 41st Annual Octagon Art Festival is just around the corner!

The festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Main Street Cultural District in downtown Ames.

There will be plenty for everyone of all ages to experience! A variety of free entertainment acts including music, singing and performing arts will be presented throughout the day as well as a wide selection of cuisine to cater to your appetite.

Children’s art activities will be available for youngsters wanting to create their own works of art. More than 100 Midwest artists from 8 states will fill the Main Street Cultural District with a sea of artistic creations!

This event is FREE and open to the public. Anyone interested in volunteering to fill 2 hour shifts during the festival, please call 232.5331 or email Phyllis at pcraig@octagonarts.org for more info.

Special guest artist this year at the Octagon Art Festival will be sculptor Peter Irniq visiting from Ottawa, Ontario. Peter will be demonstrating the building of his Inuit  inukshuk rock sculptures at the Octagon Art Festival located in front of Sigler on Main Street.

Peter has created traditional creating traditional inukshuk (inuksuit, plural form) in his homeland and now around the world for some forty years. Inuksuit are stacked rock sculptures anywhere from one meter to over two meters in height, and sometimes contain visual windows. Peter’s visit to Ames is made possible by the Ames Public Art Commission. Peter is planning on building at least three inuksuit for the Ames Park system during the month of September.

Special thanks to the festival sponsors who make this event possible: Ames Commission on the Arts, First National Bank, Iowa Arts Council, Iowa Public Radio, Mediacom, Octagon Center for the Arts, Ames Tribune, Alliant Energy, and Winning Solutions, Inc.

For more information regarding the Octagon Center for the Arts and the Octagon Art Festival call 515.232.5331 or visit www.octagonarts.org.