A reception and awards ceremony at 6 p.m. Oct. 14 will mark the opening of the 13th Fall Festival of the Arts, which features a juried fine-art competition and a non-juried miniature show and sale, at the James R. De Sana Center for Arts & Culture in Wyandotte.
The festival, presented by Art Ambience and Downriver Arts & Crafts Guild without charge, will continue through Oct. 28.
Hours for viewing or purchasing the displayed art will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. In addition, demonstrations by artists and workshops for children will be conducted from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 15 and 16.
The honorary chairman of the festival is Steve Wildern, theater operations dean of Wayne County Community College District, and the juror is Joseph T. Marks, artist, art critic, consultant and designer.
Wildern, a board member of the Downriver Council for the Arts and Wayne County Council for the Arts, History and Humanities, has worked as a production stage manager in Chicago and New York and has been involved in festivals including the Motown Winter Blast, the Detroit Festival of the Arts, River Days and the Detroit Jazz Festival.
Marks is curator emeritus of the faculty of University of Michigan-Dearborn and a board member of the Michigan Watercolor Society and Dearborn Community Arts Council. His paintings have been exhibited at museums including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Toledo Museum of Art.
Cash prizes will be awarded in the fine-arts competition as follows: $300, Best of Show; $200, second place; $100, third; and $100, Artist’s Choice. Honorable mention awards also will be presented.
In addition, an auction of original paintings by Heiner Hertling and the late Shirley Ciungan will be auctioned, and five baskets of assorted items will be awarded as door prizes.
Artists who will present demonstrations in various mediums are Rita Gazdag, Nancy Knapp, Marilyn Bomarito, Theresa Moore and Elroy Grandy, Oct. 15, and Gazdag, Ken Barbb, Jenny Vaughn, Gazdag, Moore and Mastal, Oct. 16.
Conducing children’s art workshops on the same days will be Melanie Ursing and Maureen Keast, respectively.
The DeSana Center is at 81 Chestnut.
Center slates benefit gala
The Information Center will celebrate the 41st anniversary of its founding at a gala fundraiser Oct. 13 featuring music by the Magic Bus Band, which will take galagoers on a trip back to the Woodstock era.
Partygoers are being urged to don attire reminiscent of the ’60s and ’70s for the event, which will begin at 6:15 p.m. followed by a four-course dinner and silent auction at the Crystal Gardens Banquet Center, 16703 Fort St. in Southgate.
For tickets, $125, call 734-282-7171.
County Day is planned
Downriver residents are eligible to participate in the Detroit Institute of Arts Wayne County Day program on Oct. 15 and browse the museum’s collections, take part in a drop-in art workshop and go on a “Big Picture” guided tour.
There is no museum admission charge for county residents. Free bus transportation will be provided by the DIA from the James R. DeSana Center for Arts & Culture, 81 Chestnut, Wyandotte, at 9:30 a.m., returning to the center at 2 p.m.
Reservations are required, and can be made by calling 313-833-4005 or going to www.tickets.dia.org.
Coming up . . .
Aug. 13 — Opening reception for an exhibit of works by native Lincoln Park cartoonist and illustrator Bill Morrison, who drew the first comic of “The Simpsons” and created thousands of posters for movies; 6 p.m. at the Lincoln Park Historical Museum, 1335 Southfield Road; Morrison, a 1977 graduate of Lincoln Park High School who lives on the West Coast, will attend the reception; no charge.
Oct. 22 — Registration deadline for participation in the Downriver Youth Performing Arts Center’s Dec. 16 and 17 performances of “Frosty Follies”; for more information, call 734-673-9507.