VOLUNTEERS

Support the Arts: Become a Volunteer at the Downtown
Festival & Art Show

Cater to your creative side and lend a hand in Gainesville’s art community by volunteering at the 29th Annual Downtown Festival & Art Show. Gainesville is a hub of creativity in North Central Florida, and our community takes pride in its hardworking artistic element that thrives to make the city bright and culturally satisfying year round.  Now in its 29th year, the Downtown Festival & Art Show is our city’s most anticipated event.  Ranked as one of the “Top 200 Events” in the nation since 1996, the Festival continues to grow each year.  Volunteers are a large part of what makes this event so successful.  Through the support of dedicated community members, the Festival is able to run smoothly and continues to be an event everyone will enjoy.  Volunteering at this event is a great way to get involved in the community while having fun at the same time. 

The City of Gainesville Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs is searching for people, organizations and businesses that would like to support our community by becoming volunteers for the Downtown Festival & Art Show. Four-hour shifts are available on Saturday, November 6 or Sunday, November 7, for volunteers of all ages. Volunteers can assist in the Information Booth, sell t-shirts and posters, booth sit for artists or help with the Children’s Imagination Station, a free, hands-on art activity area. As a token of our appreciation, volunteers will receive a commemorative t-shirt.

Volunteers will gain more than a t-shirt from their time at the festival. They will see downtown Gainesville as they have never seen it before. More than 100,000 visitors stroll through the streets to purchase one-of-a-kind artwork from about 250 of the nation’s top artists. Visitors can marvel at original oils and acrylics, vibrant watercolors, unique sculptures, dazzling jewelry, decorative ceramics and vivid photography. Volunteers and guests can also take time to start their holiday shopping.

For music lovers, the Downtown Festival & Art Show features three stages with continuous, live entertainment by local bands, solo musicians and dance companies.

With an entire area devoted solely to children, the Festival will be a delight for the whole family. Children can spend an entire day immersed in a world of art and creativity as they visit the Imagination Station, discovering their own artistic talents which feature a large selection of free hands-on activities including sidewalk-chalk drawing, painting, mask design, puppet and button creation and clay sculpting.

Near the steps of the Hippodrome State Theatre, the Community Information Area presents a venue for more than 50 local non-profit organizations to showcase their programs and services. Dozens of food vendors will offer a diverse selection of appetizing foods ranging from bloomin’ onions to authentic pad Thai cuisine at more than 24 food concession booths.

Lend a hand in Gainesville’s art community by volunteering at the Downtown Festival & Art Show. If you would like to join our amazing team of volunteers for the 2010 show, return the Volunteer Sign-Up Form, found as a link on this page, by Friday, October 16th.  For more information you can also contact Linda Piper, Festival Coordinator, at 352-93-8536.

What is the Downtown Festival and Art Show?

• North Central Florida’s premier fall festival of the arts, one of the nation’s premier outdoor fine arts festivals, a nationally recognized event, ranked among the top festivals in the nation.

• 250 of the most talented artists from across the nation displaying and selling their unique work including paintings, ceramics, jewelry, photography, and more.

 
(Requires the free Adobe Acrobat)

City of Gainesville
Cultural Affairs
302 NE 6th Avenue
(352)393-8536
(352)334-2249-Fax

Mailing address: Station 30
PO Box 490
Gainesville, FL 32602

The 29th Annual Downtown Festival & Art Show is proud to present this year’s poster artist, Hugo Cruz.  The featured artwork, “The Clock Tower,” showcases his use of infrared photography to reveal new perspectives of the familiar world around us.  As Hugo attests, “I fell in love with infrared photography primarily because of its ability to expose the ethereal and invisible universe of the infrared spectrum.  It is equivalent to having a new sense … an enhanced vision that manifests the hidden beauty of common subjects that we may have taken for granted.”  His unconventional artistry presents a vivid, new take on Gainesville’s downtown Clock Tower, an iconic structure that is rich in history and grace.

Hugo Cruz, a Gainesville resident, graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts.  After graduating, he had a successful career as a graphic artist, designer and publisher, but his passion was always creating unique art in different mediums.  As a self-taught artist with an avid affinity to learn new techniques, he recently decided to dedicate himself to art full time.  Cruz’s current focus is in three distinct and captivating mediums: infrared photography, metal art and acrylic painting.