VOLUNTEERS
October 13-14, 2012
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 31st 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 31st 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, October 13 and Sunday, October 14 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 2011 show, return the Volunteer Sign-Up Form, found as a link on this page, by Monday, October 17th. For more information you can also contact Linda Piper, Festival Coordinator, at 352-93-8536.
What is the Downtown Festival and Art Show?
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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.
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250 of the most talented artists from across the nation displaying and selling their unique work including paintings, ceramics, jewelry, photography, and more.
- An outdoor street festival that draws more than 100,000 visitors to historic downtown Gainesville.
- A celebration of music with three stages of continuous, live entertainment by local bands, solo musicians and dance companies. The festival weekend kicks off Friday, Oct. 12, with a Downtown Blues Festival at the Bo Diddley Community Plaza at 7 p.m.
- Musical performances, magic shows and puppet shows just for children at the Children’s Imagination Station, including a large selection of free, hands-on art activities so children can spend the day immersed in a world of art and creativity.
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 32627
The 2011 poster artist, Mary McIntyre, served as one of the festival's first directors, and she and her husband have owned and operated a local stained glass studio and art gallery since 1980. Though their inspirations come from many sources, much of Mary and Mike McIntyre’s work depicts local flora and fauna. This year’s poster image, featuring a stained glass representation of a sandhill crane nestled among a magnolia and palm tree, is no exception. Sandhill cranes live in Florida’s marshes and prairies. Most noticeable during the fall and spring seasons, McIntyre said, these birds announce their annual return to Florida with distinctive calls that cause locals to stop, listen and appreciate the rich and vibrant natural beauty of north central Florida. Mary McIntyre has been a full-time stained glass artist in Gainesville for more than 30 years. Mostly self-taught, McIntyre graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in education. Her husband studied architecture at UF, and he and his fellow students were asked to design a building for a stained glass studio. A slideshow of the studio’s stained glass images sparked Mary and Mike McIntyre’s interest in this beautiful medium. On a trip to California in 1976, they were further exposed to stained glass craftsmanship at a local art gallery. That same year, they began designing stained glass of their own, and they opened their first studio in downtown Gainesville in 1980. The nuances and creative possibilities of this medium and the ever-changing effects of light passing through glass continue to challenge and fascinate them, McIntyre said. McIntyre creates her award-winning work through time-honored, traditional techniques in order to ensure the structural integrity of her pieces. A strong sense of design, attention to detail and a commitment to superb craftsmanship are hallmarks of the pieces she and her husband produce. |