SPECIAL EVENTS

ARTernative Destination: First ever Sugar Land ARTernative Festival. Houston’s most innovative arts groups and Sugar Land’s best take over Town Square for a family-friendly co-city arts festival on Saturday, October 2.

Spacetaker and Fresh Arts Coalition, two Houston-based organizations committed to the cultural enrichment of our community, are joining forces to host Sugar Land’s first ARTernative Festival this fall in Town Square Plaza. In collaboration with the Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation, the Sugar Land ARTernative Festival will include an artful afternoon of family-oriented activities and performances featuring some of the most progressive and innovative arts groups currently working in the Houston area alongside some of Sugar Land’s emerging and established arts groups.

The afternoon will include impromptu poetry writing by Inprint, a hip hop dance workshop led by Dance Houston, a performance of Aesop’s Fables by Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company, a wacky-fun puppet performance by Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theater, dance performances by Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Psophonia Dance Company, Suchu Dance, and Sugar Land’s Anjali Center for the Performing Arts, a family-friendly play by Main Street Theater, an interactive “Opera 101” class by Opera Vista, an outdoor movie screening with Aurora Picture Show, and more.

In addition to performances and workshops, festival-goers will be able to get crafty at interactive art stations and stroll along the plaza to learn about the several dozen arts organizations represented in an “art crawl” type of environment. And if your hunger isn’t satisfied with all of the art consumption, local restaurants and businesses surrounding Town Square Plaza will be open to satiate your appetite.

Sugar Land has identified itself as a fertile environment for cultural initiatives and the ideal venue for showcasing the best of Houston’s alternative arts. The ARTernative Festival will be an exciting opportunity to present these groups alongside Sugar Land’s best to open new channels of cross-county cultural exchange.

STAGE PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE*
4:00pm Welcome by festival emcee KHOU 11 News reporter Rucks Russell
4:30pm Hip Hop workshop led by Dance Houston
4:50pm Aesop’s Fables by Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company on Interactive Stage
5:05pm Anjali dance performance
5:20pm Bobbindoctrin puppet performance on Interactive Stage
5:30pm Dominic Walsh Dance Theater performance
6:00pm Opera 101 lesson by Opera Vista
6:25pm Psophonia Dance performance
6:50pm Suchu Dance performance
7:10pm Main Street Theater – Theater for Youth excerpts from BUSY TOWN
8:00pm Aurora Picture Show’s Goodie Bag screenings

*schedule subject to change

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
11am – 12:30pm Museum of Cultural Arts Houston (MOCAH) Mural Painting Workshop. $25 registration fee – purchase in advance online starting Mon, Sept 20 or on-site registration

1 – 2pm Writers in the Schools Creative Writing Workshop for 2nd-5th graders. Free but RSVP required!

3 – 4pm Educator’s Preview: Educator’s are invited to come early and check out all the outreach opportunities available for their school. Free but RSVP required to mandy@fresharts.org

5 – 6:30pm Mosaic Theatre Company Musical Theatre Workshop. $25 registration fee – purchase in advance online starting Mon, Sept 20 or on-site registration

ON THE PLAZA
4-7pm Interactive Activities: DiverseWorks’ Tshirt screen printing station [BYOShirt!]; Inprint’s Poetry Buskers write you a poem; Pinot’s Palette art class; street painting with Houston Via Colori®.

4-7pm Artists on the Plaza: works from Houston and Sugar Land artists including Kelley Devine, Maureen Seeba, Matt Adams, Raul Gonzalez, Tracy Manford, Vipul Divecha, Kirsten Coco, Jeremy Keas and more!

4-8pm Houston and Fort Bend County arts groups and businesses will be on hand at informational tables

A full schedule of activities is available at www.arternative.org.  

About Spacetaker:
Spacetaker is a 501(c)3 professional organization and Artist Resource Center located in Houston’s First Ward whose mission it to provide artists and small non-profits access to economic development, continuing education, and networking opportunities to support their professional growth. www.spacetaker.org.  

About Fresh Arts Coalition:
Fresh Arts Coalition is a 501(c)3 collaborative of some of the most original and thought-provoking small and mid-sized Houston arts organizations in Houston, from dance to theatre, music to film, visual arts to opera. FAC markets the importance of the arts to the public and builds audience participation through increased visibility, collaborative efforts and advocacy. www.fresharts.org.

About Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation:
The Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation is 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that exists to promote the cultural, performing, and visual arts in Sugar Land as well as to preserve, renovate, and restore historic Lakeview Auditorium to the cultural arts center it once was in the community. www.slcaf.org.