River Campus Summer Arts Festival to showcase visual, performing arts

Southeast Missouri State University celebrates artists from across the region during River Campus Summer Arts Festival.

Returning after being canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Summer Arts Festival will offer a full day of visual and performing arts exhibitions and activities June 19.

The day’s events — scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. — will feature live music, dance and theatrical performances, art demonstrations, visual arts displays, family-friendly art experiential activities, museum exhibitions and other hands-on activities throughout the River Campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Rhonda Weller-Stilson, dean of Southeast’s Earl and Margie Holland College of Arts and Media, said the River Campus tries to coordinate some of their summer workshops and camps with the annual festival.

“As part of the festival, we always produce other events during the week,” Weller-Stilson said. “We have three events this year, so, those happen, and then everything kind of culminates during that one-day festival.”

The Chestnut Mountain Gang performs folk music June 16, 2018, during River Campus Summer Arts Festival in Cape Girardeau.Southeast Missourian file

Beginning on Monday and leading up to the all-day festival, Southeast’s River Campus will hold the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, which is a new addition to the event, Weller-Stilson said.

Two camps will be held during the week, Weller-Stilson said. One will be an “acting intensive camp,” and the other will be a “dance intensive camp,” for children 12 and older.

“They’ll have a one-act play reading at the festival [from the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival competition], and the acting and dance camps will actually perform at the festival,” Weller-Stilson said.

Weller-Stilson said this year’s Arts Festival will provide opportunities for families and people of all ages to enjoy engaging live performances, art activities and competitions.

Food and drinks will be available all day from Chartwells in St. Vincent’s Commons in the Kenneth and Jeanine Dobbins River Campus Center and from local food trucks. Attendees will also be able to bring food and picnic.

For more information on the Summer Arts Festival, or other upcoming River Campus events, visit rivercampus.org.

2021 River Campus Summer Arts Festival lineup

Entertainment stage

• 10 a.m. — Jerry Ford Dixieland Band
• 11 a.m. — Jumper Cables
• Noon — Eric Scott
• 1 p.m. — Chestnut Mountain Gang
• 2 p.m. — Eric Scott
• 3 p.m. — Jerry Ford & Friends
• 4 p.m. — Lindsey and Landon

Art tent

Art, kite making and museum activities

Avenue of Art

Artists of all ages will participate in creating chalk art, Craig Thomas will create a piece for the festival

Art demonstrations

• Live pottery wheel with Benjie Heu, demonstrations and art for sale
• Louise Bodenheimer, Justin Miller, Chris Wubbena — art in atrium
• Joni Hand — bookmaking
• Hannah Sanders — printmaking
• Denise McAllister — keychains
• Wendell Stapleton Upcycle guitars

Community booths

• Arts Council of Southeast Missouri
• Catapult Creative House
• Discovery Playhouse
• Missouri Conservation Department
• KRCU