By Josette Keelor The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER — Shenandoah Arts Council’s ArtScape project will launch its banner reveal on the Loudoun Street Mall this Saturday.
To celebrate the installation, the featured artists and banner sponsors will meet on the Old Town Winchester walking mall from 11 a.m. to noon to see the banners, chat with each other and take a group photo in front of the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum.
This is the 13th year of ArtScape, which includes a juried show of original artwork until July 17 at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley at 901 Amherst St. followed by the outdoor art gallery of weather-proof banners to display the artists’ work along the walking mall.
The banners, which feature the work of nearly 60 artists, are being installed this week and will remain along the Loudoun Street Mall until June of 2023.
“It is going as planned,” Lisa Sipp, executive director of the nonprofit Shenandoah Arts Council, said on Tuesday.
“We’re expecting that they’ll be done with all the banners by the end of the week,” she said.
This year’s artists include eight youth participants — two elementary students, two middle schoolers and four high school students.
“That’s the most we ever had,” Sipp said.
Four were chosen by a jury from ShenArts’ Youth Art Month exhibition and the second annual Teen Art Club Exhibition in collaboration with the MSV, Sipp said. The others registered along with the adults, though they’re still in school.
ArtScape 13 is organized by the arts council in collaboration with Old Town Winchester and is supported by local sponsors.
This fall, ArtScape will build to a crescendo with a day of events tentatively planned for October.
They’ll combine two individual activities from last year — art demonstrations on the walking mall and The Great ArtScape Scavenger Hunt — into a day of excitement that will also include a flash dance mob organized by an arts council intern who’s majoring in dance at Shenandoah University.
It was something that Sipp had thought about offering last year, but it needed another year to fully come together.
The artists featured om this year’s Artscape banners are: Robert Ballard, Lilly Black, Debra Bourget, Lauri Bridgeforth, Mackenzie Bullock, Nina Burke, Kay Caldwell, Kelsey Camacho Zabala, Joyce Carrier, Sheilla Coyne, Tim Crisman, Allison Day, Christy Dunkle, Daniel Dunmire, Madison Faath, Larry Lee Fickau, Constance Fisher, Bonnie Flax, Aubrey Grove, Kathy Guzman, John Hudson, Alice Irvan, Nancy Kautz, Ashley Kincaid, Daniel Kratofil, Bernie Lewis, John P. Lewis, Kris Loya, Marion Majher, Hana Malone, Mary Paula Malucci, Abby McDonald, Asher McDonald, Carole Miernik, Dawn Moore, Sally Myers, Elise Nicely, Jamie Pein, Victoria Pendragon, Deborah Phillips, Nancy Rabe, Susan Repic, Laura Robertson, Jeffrey Ryan, Scott Santmier, Mia Schloemer, Mariska Sharma, Patience Shirk, Billy Smelser, Kelly Stallard, Neil Stewart, Josie Tilton, Donna Varn, Krista Veit, Heather Williams and Ellen Zimmerman,
For more information, visit shenarts.org/artscape-13 or call 540-667-5166.