AdkAction’s Keeseville Community Arts Festival was an incredible success this year, bringing the community together across the entire weekend to celebrate the arts and promote downtown revitalization. Here are a few highlights:
- Families tie dyed over 200 free Keeseville Art Festival tee-shirts that they will wear with pride throughout the year! Kids and their families also participated in other free open art activities thanks to the Ausable Valley Grange and Adirondack Architectural Heritage, including trying their hand at a pottery wheel, creating a painted tile, coloring the architecture of Keeseville, and learning how local artisans craft their work.
- The festival sold over $37,000 worth of art during the festival through our Plein air events, with a portion of those sales supporting AdkAction’s community revitalization work in Keeseville.
- 424 people from near and far enjoyed walking through the historic Stone Mill to see the beauty of Keeseville and listen to a concert performed by the Meadowmount School of Music.
- Six emerging/early-career artists were awarded micro-grants from AdkAction to help offset the costs of participating in plein air events. One of these talented young local artists –Noah Bonesteel– also took first prize in the juried plein air show and sale! Read who won the rest of the plein air awards here.
- Thirty-two volunteers, including both year round and seasonal residents of Keeseville worked hard together to make the festival a success, including scooping out 12 gallons of ice cream donated by Stewart’s Shops to happy festival-goers!
- Two-thirds of respondents in our festival survey call Keeseville home, with many echoing the sentiment of one attendee: “I’m glad to see things like this happening in our town – it makes me hopeful for the future.”
As we plan and prepare for next year, we would love your feedback on how this year’s festivities went. If you attended any part of the festival, please take a moment to add your voice to our short survey. Thank you!
