Call to Artists

WHAT: The 27th Annual Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival

 

WHERE: Reston Town Center, Reston VA

     

WHEN: May 18-20, 2018

The 2018 Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival will become a three-day event, opening on Friday, from 10am - 5pm, and thereby provide access to an entirely NEW buying audience: the approximately 10,000-person workforce in the Town Center!

 

It is an audience we have not truly reached in the past (we used to open on Friday night, but by then the workforce had already left). Making the very significant logistical investment in a Friday opening provides A NEW, BUILT-IN, AFFLUENT BUYING AUDIENCE looking for world-class art for their offices, homes, for gifts, and more. It reflects our relentless focus on investing to grow our audience (and we typically draw tens of thousands of visitors already) and driving sales, explaining why ArtFairCalendar.com has described this as a festival where "the 'art stars' of the outdoor art fairs vie for spaces."

 

Added bonus: we will now move our Festival Party, sponsored by the M Group and catered by The Counter, to Saturday night (7 - 9:30 pm) and use it to announce our Artist Awards sponsored by Boston Properties ($500 cash prize for our ten awardees, a blue ribbon to display at their booths, and automatic acceptance into next year's Festival). By making the Artist Awards the focus of the evening (something we could not do when opening on Saturday; not enough time for judging of booths), we will shine an even brighter spotlight on our participating artists and your work. As always, our artists and their plus-ones are our party guests, FREE, another of our nationally renowned artist amenities. 

We recognize that our artists invest time, effort and money to participate in the Festival and we strive to make sure that everyone's Festival experience is excellent. 2018 exhibiting artists will enjoy outstanding support from our exceptional volunteers and a diverse knowledgeable clientele. Artist hospitality at the event includes:

*Drive-up, set-up/tear down adjacent to booth

*Reserved artist-only parking for oversize vehicles

*Convenient and profitable selling hours

*Ample volunteer support

*Booth sitters

*$5,000 in awards

*Printed program that features full-color thumbnails and websites for every artist with accompanying booth numbers

*Continental breakfasts

*Reduced hotel rates for onsite accomodations

*Free bottled water and snack delivery

*Indoor restrooms

*Police presence in additional to the 24/7 Reston Town Center Security

  

Each year the Festival features approximately two hundred artists who are selected based on quality, originality, and craftsmanship by a panel of independent jurors and members of the GRACE curatorial staff. All are superb professionals with extensive experience in various disciplines of fine art.

The Festival is produced by the Greater Reston Arts Center-a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to enriching community life through excellence in contemporary art-as its primary annual fundraiser. GRACE offers exhibitions and art enrichment programs for audiences of all ages year-round. The gallery is always free and open to the public. All proceeds from the Festival directly support our educational and outreach programs.

Don't miss your opportunity to be here!

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS through JURIED ART SERVICES

Application Deadline:  December 10, 2017

Application Fee: $50 (non-refundable)

       

Additional information is available at www.restonarts.org

Contact Erica Harrison, Festival Director at 703-471-9242 ext. 113 or

ericaharrison@restonarts.org