The VARGA Gallery presents the first ever Phoenicia Festival of the Arts happening in Phoenicia, New York from Friday, August 4th through Sunday, August 6, 2023. The three day event spans the entirety of Main Street from the Arts & Antiques Center at the former Pharmacy to the beloved Phoenicia Playhouse in the center of town all the way down to the Phoenicia Park Field and includes a Main Street Market for Artists and Artisans in the center of town and plenty of family friendly activities and happenings throughout town. 

The Phoenicia Festival of the Arts is a project 20 years in the making conceived and created by artist Christina Varga of VARGA Gallery bringing musical, theatrical and visual events promoting diversity and unique cultural offerings in a free three day event celebrating the area's beautiful and welcoming environment with diverse and inclusive activities. The festival showcases the town center as a gem in the panoply of cultural opportunities in the upstate region, Catskills and Hudson Valley that is easily accessible from New York City and beyond.

The Main Street Market kicks off with a Night Market on Friday and Art Markets on Saturday and Sunday. The market will enjoy live outdoor music, poetry readings, open mics and artist demonstrations as well as artisan made gifts, artwork, curated vintage collections, ceramics, sculpture and more.  Street performers and buskers will be dancing, playing and performing live street cabaret at the market and around town. Here are some of the highlighted performances:

• “Glittered Honesty” by actor/performer Valentine Shauger will be on hand

•  musician David Laks will be performing on his groundbreaking digital Emeo saxophone and harmonicas with special guests 

• dancer Emma Quinones will be performing freeform improvisational dance 

• artist/activist Richard J Treitner will be presenting his true form as a Wandering Gypsy Tarot Faerie Witch 

• Eliot O’Clair will appear as a shapeshifting, wandering art creature from realms unknown traveling the worlds to spread wonder and trade trinkets.  

• Art Life phenom Linda Mary Montano will be Singing The Chakras 

• Outdoor community art installations by Jennifer Zackin, Nicole Strafaci, Michael Hunt and more will complement the outdoor happenings.  

• Psychics, mediums, tarot card readers and diviners will be available to festival goers who want to delve deeper into the mystical arts. 

• Community Tai Chi, Yoga, Gong Baths, Hula Hooping, Meditation and more will be offered in the Phoenicia Park Field by donation. 

• There will be activities for kids such as Sasquatch Walks, Arts & Crafts, Fairy Wand making and more.  

• Drumming sensation Fre At Last will lead a community drum circle on Saturday and Sunday at the Phoenicia Park. 

VARGA Gallery is curating two exhibits for the festival:

1. Pop Up Exhibit for August at the Arts & Antiques center at the former Pharmacy Building on the corner of Route 214 and Main Street 

2. Exhibit in the Zebra Room at the VARGA Gallery & Studio of smaller and more salacious works. 

The exhibitions will include works by notable artists such as Paul McMahon, Linda Mary Montano, L.A. based artist Patrick Dennis, Scott Ackerman, Adam Zaretsky, Melanie Delgado, Noel Chrisjohn Benson, Mimi Young, Peter Head, Amy Ackerman, Michael Hunt, Christina Brady, Acacia Fusco, Michael Esposito, Bronson Eden, Faheem Haider, Don Bruschi, Scott Cronin, Michael McGrath among others and the artwork will be up through the month of August.

Various workshop projects to include…

Artist Jennifer Zackin is offering her community weaving project on the Boardwalk at 60 Main Street to festival goers who will have an opportunity to participate in a Communal Vortex Weaving that functions as meditation, mediation, and connection by bringing people together. It develops spatial literacy and probes the potential energy generated through art-life processes by weaving in community, sharing skills, and envisioning with others the kind of future we strive to collectively shape. She will be joined by crochet artist Nicole Strafaci who creates site specific crochet installations, fiber and wire figurative sculptures, vibrant crochet tapestries, mixed media collage, drawings and one of a kind couture garments. 

The historic Phoenicia Playhouse will host 3 days of performances. Evening schedule will be:

Friday, August 4th  (Time:  7pm )- Kicks off with an opening night celebration featuring local luminaries Sparrow X. Carter and Paul McMahon as Masters Of Ceremonies. Friday Night will be highlighted by a number of artists including multidisciplinary artist and designer Anna Hafner who will present "The Oneironaut" - a multimedia telling of a dream-traveler who comes to Earthside to save us from ourselves. The event is free. Donations to the Phoenicia Playhouse are gratefully accepted.

Saturday, August 5th (Time:  7pm) -  the Phoenicia Playhouse will present Hudson Valley Improv in a 40 minute set opening for founder and award-winning actor and improviser Samantha Jones' one woman production "Butterfly Suicide". Hudson Valley Improv is the premiere improv training center in upstate New York. The fiercely funny characters in BUTTERFLY SUICIDE are a culmination of Jones’ solo performance career and comedic collaboration with co-writer and sister Rebecca Lally. Jones explores the cracking facade of mid-life by portraying wild creatures with the fearless comedic abandon for which she is known. The event is free. Donations to the Phoenicia Playhouse are gratefully accepted.

Sunday, August 6th (Time: 2pm) - the Phoenicia Playhouse events conclude with a literary panel of publishers, authors, poets and bards sharing their insights and experiences with a live audience with a Q&A after. Participants include Suzan Saxman author of “The Reluctant Psychic”, Sparrow X. Carter poet and author, Shiv Mirabito publisher of several Chapbooks of note by diverse authors, poet activist Amy King, author Abigail Thomas and publisher James Conrad of Golden Notebook Press among others. The panel and discussion is followed by Moth Radio Hour awardee Heather Dell'Amore who hosts a personal journal podcast in its second season called "That Wasn't Supposed to Happen" presenting guests who have experienced a fork-in-the-road event that changes the course of their lives. Dell'Amore's show "No Hope For Oz" is a series of monologues/stories from different life-defining and changing moments on topics ranging from childhood enchantment to the desire to run away from it all.  After the overwhelming response to a story about breastfeeding twins that unexpectedly won a Moth StorySlam “No Hope for Oz” was drawn like a moth to a flame toward wrestling topics Dell’Amore never wanted to wrestle.  

The Phoenicia Playhouse was founded in 1976 as the Shandaken Theatrical Society, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing community theater to our mountain village. The Playhouse now serves Phoenicia and surrounding communities with a robust schedule of events that spans theater, music, film and performances for a wide variety of audiences. The venue is a building that was constructed in 1887 right off Phoenicia's Main street and offers a remarkable atmosphere for experiencing performances of all sorts. The Playhouse is located at 10 Church Street in Phoenicia, New York.

COMMUNITY MOVEMENT GUIDES include PATRICIA LAUFER who will guide Group Hoops. Hula Hooping or Hoop Dance Activation as she calls it is an incredibly playful movement modality that activates the NEW in our energy field in whatever is ready to come in now and an amazing way to pivot our energy towards how WE want to live in the world. PETER FEIN is a Tai Chi Practitioner and will guide community movement with Ashley Miles. FRE AT LAST will guide community drumming  on Saturday and Sunday and there will be guided meditation, Sasquatch Walks and more for those seeking to connect with nature. 

All this and more will kick off on Friday, August 4th and VARGA Gallery continues to gather and curate talent in this inaugural event. For more information contact Christina Varga of VARGA Gallery at PhoeniciaFestivalOfTheArts@gmail.com and follow VARGA Gallery on Facebook and Instagram.  We will continue to update the website as artists and collaborators are confirmed.  To sign up to participate as a vendor or to submit work for the exhibits email PhoeniciaFestivalOfTheArts@gmail.com.

Digital links:

Website   |  www.VARGAgallery.com  

Facebook  |  www.facebook.com/vargagallery 

Instagram  |  www.instagram.com/vargagallery