No Lincoln Highway Arts Festival in 2022
The Mount Vernon Area Arts Council (MVAAC) has announced it will not host a Lincoln Highway Arts Festival this year.
“Except for 2020, the event has been held annually in September,” said MVAAC president Marie DeVries. “After 15 festivals, the MVAAC board of directors decided to take 2022 off to focus on other projects and rethink the event. We welcome input and ideas from the community.”
"Like other organizations, the pandemic hit us hard," said DeVries. We've lost volunteers who left the council to focus on family and work needs. The arts festival is a very labor-intensive event and, we simply don't have the people to make it work." Mount Vernon-Lisbon community members interested in serving on the board are encouraged to email mvartcouncil@gmail.com.
In lieu of the one-day festival, the arts council will focus on smaller projects designed to appeal to a broad spectrum of the community including storytelling and poetry events as well as installation of additional Free Little Libraries. MVAAC also awards grants up to $500 to community arts programs; most recently, for the Shakespeare in the Park community theatre program and elementary & middle school kilns.
"We're hard at work, writing grants and discussing options for the summer and the rest of the year," DeVries said, adding that MVAAC is also a partner for Chalk the Walk.
Founded in 2004, the Mount Vernon Area Arts Council is an all-volunteer, 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase the knowledge, understanding, cooperation, appreciation and practice of the arts within the Mount Vernon-Lisbon area. For more information, go to www.mvaac.org.
