The Festival of the Arts celebrates its 18th year with over 75 events, uniting the Big Rapids community through concerts, workshops and performances focused on creativity and health.
Besides hosting concerts and performances, this year’s festival has offered events exploring the relationship between the arts and the public’s well-being.
From concerts and workshops to performances and hands-on activities, the festival strengthens the bond between Ferris and the city, offering a platform for both residents and artists to connect, collaborate and share in the cultural experience.
The festival board members include people from the Ferris and Big Rapids communities.
English professor Roxanne Cullen has been with the festival for around 15 years and was added to the board as an Artworks representative. She finds the festival important to both communities.
“It is a wonderful collaboration between the city and the university,” Cullen said. “There is a symbolic relationship between the city and the university. The more vibrant the city is, the easier it is for the university to attract quality students, faculty and employees. The more robust the university is, the more resources are available to the city. The more we work together, the better for everyone and the festival is a prime example of that.”
Events for the festival either take place at the university or somewhere in the city of Big Rapids. The concerts commonly occur at the university’s auditorium, high schools, or middle schools. Immanuel Lutheran Church held a concert for Phoebe White in late January so she could perform for the community.
Music professor and Director of Instrumental Concert Ensembles Richard Scott Cohen is a founding member of the festival. He has found that the festival has expanded due to the board’s motivation to seek as many events as possible.
“We keep trying to diversify everything. For the month of February, we try to have one event per day. Some of the events are ideas that we come up with and we find people to do them, but other events are already happening in town,” Cohen said.
The festival has also included events that feature students from Big Rapids High School. They’ve had a band concert and a choir concert and the theatre department presented a one-act comedy that was held for two straight evenings.
“The Big Rapids Middle School had a concert on Wednesday, Feb. 19,” Cohen said. “Since they were doing that during February, we’d incorporate them into the festival. If something’s happening in the community during February and we find out about it, we’ll try and include everything.”
Big Rapids community member Mira Brew is the festival treasurer. Brew’s involvement in the community has always been important to her, so she was excited to take on the role of helping the organization.
“I would say our main goal as a board is to bring the community together through art,” Brew said. “Whether it be a cookie decorating class, a puppet show for the entire family or an orchestra concert. We want to give people something that sparks their interest, something that they can look forward to.”
Brew also expressed the importance of finding the performers. It is just as much of an opportunity for the performers as is for the community.
“Not only that, but we want to give the local artists and performers an opportunity to showcase their talents as well.” Brew said.
The Festival of the Arts will continue wrapping up with events until March 2. These include an FSU Jazz Band concert, a film screening of “Black Barbie,” a Paxton/Spangler Band concert and more. The board members of the Festival of the Arts are willing to hear students’ ideas for next year’s festival.