ArtSlam lines Old Main Street with creativity

ArtSlam has always been a fun and family-friendly celebration of local visual arts.

It’s still that, but this year’s ArtSlam will add performing arts as well.

“We’ll have 10 performances,” said Holly Eisemann, the events and creative services manager for Realize Bradenton, which organizes ArtSlam every year. “They’re using the street for their stage. They’ll actually be putting flooring on the street, right at Fourth Avenue and Old Main Street, that they’ll use for their stage. We’ll have a DJ to announce them.”

There have been occasional performances at ArtSlam in previous years, Eisemann said, but they were essentially impromptu events. Visitors to ArtSlam would just sort of come across them.

This year, there will be a full schedule of performances at that intersection. It will include everything for comedy shows to high school dance squads.

Realize Bradenton is calling this the eighth annual ArtSlam. It’s kind of tricky to enumerate them, Eisemann said, because there were two in one year. The idea, aside from the performances, is to have different groups of students and professional artists come up with interactive activities that turn Old Main Street into an art gallery for a day. There are 23 teams in all this year, and most of them have designed installations that allow the public to create their own works of art, from masks to pinwheels and oversize sculptures.

It’s all free, appropriate for kids and open to the public.

By the way, the weekly Farmers’ Market will still be going on along Old Main Street during ArtSlam. ArtSlam happenings will be all around and in between the Farmers’ Market vendors, and on the the side streets off of Old Main.

Here are the shows, exhibits and activities scheduled for this year’s ArtSlam.

Caricatures: Michael White Art. An award-winning artist creates free caricature drawings.

The Great Pretenders: Manatee Art Education Association. Visitors can craft unique masks.

Jazz performances: State College of Florida jazz band. 11 a.m. and noon., Fourth Avenue and Old Main Street

Tennis Ball Creations: IMG Academy. Oversized sculptures, using re-purposed tennis balls and connecting wooden dowels.

Comedy, Magic and More: George Gilbert. A comedy magic show.

Live art: Inspiration Academy. Art comes alive with paintings that move and interact with the crowd.

The Art of Rhythm: Haile Middle School. Haile art students create a visual representation of rhythm in creating artwork.

Community Mural: Bayshore High School. Large outlined canvases ready to be filled by the public with images of Florida wildlife.

MYPark-Let: Manatee Young Professionals. A standard parking space transforms into an enticing mini-park.

Dance performances: Lee Middle School, Bayshore High School and Inspiration Academy. Beginning at 1:30 p.m., local middle and high school dance teams will perform on Fourth Avenue and Old Main Street.

Mystical Nymphs: Southeast High School VPA Academy. Full-body master paintings of sea, fire, and woodlands will be created. Free face and body painting is offered to the public.

The Read-In Corner: The Reading Corner. A mini library, created using recycled materials and decorated by kids.

Dream It, Draw It: AprilArt Studios. Ideas become reality as visitors answer the question: “What would you love to see in downtown Bradenton?”

Up’Scale’ Fish: Manatee School of the Arts. Students construct a giant fish sculpture using materials found along our shorelines.

Drumline performance: Manatee High School. The Manatee High School drumline marches down Old Main Street.

Paint like Pollock: R.H. Prine Elementary. Visitors can express themselves using the creative techniques of Jackson Pollock.

UpCycled Art: Lakewood Ranch High School. Visitors can create art from recycled materials and learn about the effects of waste on our environment.

Pop Art Face Painting: Palmetto High School. Visitors can choose from three superhero-themed face paint designs and have their pictures taken in front of an artistic comic backdrop.

Edible Architecture: Sugar Cubed/Geraldson Community Farm. Edible structures for kids to build using fresh grapes and local veggies.

Vertical Art with Richie Brasil and Firkins Nissan: The Bradenton artist transforms a wrapped Nissan Sentra with live aerosol painting.

Feel the Beat: Scott Blum Music. Visitors can learn drumming techniques and make music together.

Recycle Pinwheels: Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School. Visitors can create pinwheels from materials.

Fun with Clay: ArtCenter Manatee Pottery Group. The public can learn clay techniques while creating a piece of pottery.

Recycle fashion: Manatee County Public Library. Visitors can make headbands or armbands using recycled materials.

Wearable Abstract Art: The Creative Wagon. Visitors use wooden shapes and turn it into art jewelry.

Interactive ArtMazes: TheArtistMsg. Life-size solvable art mazes to stimulate the eye and challenge the mind

Details: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. March 4, Old Main Street, Bradenton. Free. 941-621-6471, realizebradenton.com/artslam_2017.

This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 4:03 PM with the headline "ArtSlam lines Old Main Street with creativity."