FarmArt.org

Thank you for the front page story on our festival!  We are all very pleased with the community’s response to our first 3 events. As the Festival’s designer and director, I’d like to thank you for capturing picturesque images of our celebration and  bringing those images to word. 

I’d also like to give you a bit more information to help round out your story.  To begin, we’re very grateful to the James Irvine Foundation, who provided us with the start-up grant for this festival.  Without their initial funding, we would not be able to do this program.  In addition, the California Arts Council and many generous local sponsors have helped to support the 2008 Foothill Farmlands ARTS Festival. 

As your article mentions, this festival is hosted by three local agencies and is intended to bring focus to local tourism through arts, agricultural, nature and cultural heritage.  The Farms of Tuolumne County members provide their wonderful farmlands for our festivities and supply us with their abundant farm products.  The Stanislaus National Forest joins us by hosting one day of the festival on a spot that is rich with the history and heritage of our early ranching roots.  We also get to participate in a Play Day on our  national forest lands.  And Central Sierra Arts Council provides access to the rich creative talent of our community with musicians, visual artists, dancers and spoken word artists. All three organizations supply volunteers to make this festival work.  And this year we have the added cooperation and collaboration of our downtown merchants.  We do want the festival to be an exciting way to promote economic development through tourism. But the agencies are just the machinery to make this event go forward.  Yes, there is fund raising going on to support the arts and other community causes, but making money is not the driving force of this festival.

The Foothill Farmlands ARTS Festival tells the story of our community spirit as we celebrate our agricultural heritage and the lands on which we live. We have over 100 volunteers.  They come from diverse social, economic and philosophical experiences, working side by side.  Each one acknowledges that in Tuolumne County we share a common ground of good works, reaching out passed our differences to help one another   Each one values the contribution made by our local farmers, ranchers, and appreciates the inspiration these beautiful lands give to our creative impulse.

I moved here in 1972, a young smart-aleck kid from LA, who saw that this community had critical economic and environmental issues.  I dug myself into the community, rolled up my sleeves and went to work to help in whatever way I could.  Over the years, those issues did not go away.  In fact, they became increasingly complex.  But over all this time and through all our community controversies what sustains me is knowing how much people care for one another and care about the quality of our lives in the Sierra Foothills.  I hope the Foothill Farmlands ARTS Festival will continue into our future and that it will let us remember how much we enjoy sharing our lives on the Mother Lode.

Sincerely,

bz smith, festival director

AND to you FarmArt Blog readers, thank you for being a part of that spirit!