Dogwood Festival to begin Thursday

| April 30, 2013
Pictured is the River View High School’s Certified Gold choir which performed at last year’s Dogwood Festival during their daily boxed lunches and concerts at the courtsquare. This year’s Dogwood Festival begins Thursday night with a kick-off celebration at the Pomerene Center for the Arts at 5:30 p.m. The boxed lunches and concerts will be every day during the festival at the courtsquare at noon.

Pictured is the River View High School’s Certified Gold choir which performed at last year’s Dogwood Festival during their daily boxed lunches and concerts at the courtsquare. This year’s Dogwood Festival begins Thursday night with a kick-off celebration at the Pomerene Center for the Arts at 5:30 p.m. The boxed lunches and concerts will be every day during the festival at the courtsquare at noon.

COSHOCTON – The 28th annual Dogwood Festival this week will see many exciting artists, musicians, and theatre productions in our community, but one of the most exciting aspects about the festival this year will be the opening of the first ever Root Ball Park, which will be at the Park Hotel Lot during First Fridays celebrations.

According to Anne Cornell, director of the Pomerene Center for the Arts, there will be four trees stationed at the Park, and four each at each high school in the county and the Career Center. For more information on the Root Ball Park, see their ongoing journal at: pomerenearts.org/community/root-ball-park/weekend-with-vamos-architects

This year, the Dogwood Festival will officially begin on Thursday, May 2 with an opening party at the Pomerene for the Arts Center from 5:30 – 7 p.m. with the Building Home/Building Hope and Landscapes exhibit. The Building Home/Building Hope is in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity where local photographers were asked to capture the meaning of home in a photograph.

“The photographers get to be in the limelight plus the exhibit benefits us and the Pomerene Center,” said Sue Hardesty, executive director of Habitat. “It’s a win – win situation. We’ve never partnered with them before and we are excited. They have a different following than we do and it will give us the opportunity to reach out to different people. We want to do more partnering with organizations because great things happen when you work together.”

Kathy Thompson will also perform that evening on the piano and local wineries will be on hand serving their best wines. Oil landscape painting will be featured at the opening as well by artist Judith Speckman Russell.

There is a variety of activities planned for Friday, May 3. The day begins with the opening of Commonwealth Americana at Kiefer’s Florist, located at 318 Hill St. in Coshocton from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. The new business will feature Coshocton-made arts, crafts, and homewares.

The day will continue with a Dogwood-themed First Fridays beginning at 5 p.m. on Main Street in Coshocton at the 300 block. Join in and make your own art with friends of the Pomerene. Paint, draw, or join in the ‘big rug’ with Jessie Tubbs and her crochet students. You don’t have to be a crochet master to join in the fun; they’ll teach you in no time.

After you try your hand at painting, make sure to stop over at the Civic Hall to view the Shadows art exhibit by the Coshocton Opportunity School from 5 – 8 p.m.

Be sure to be back at the Park Space for Christian Howe who is a world-renown jazz violinist. He will be performing with his daughter, Camille. Table reservations will be accepted with a donation. A beer garden will also be available. Local musicians, Bobby and Laura Dotson, will be opening for Howe.

“In the true Appalachia tradition, they are very rich in musical heritage,” said Cornell. “We’re really excited to place our local talent beside these big-name musicians. We want to show there are things about us that are singular. I think Coshocton is an attractive place to raise a family and this festival puts that face out there all at once.”

Two local theatre productions will also be opening that night, one at 7:30 p.m. and the other at 8 p.m. River View will be presenting their spring musical, ‘Guys and Dolls’ at the River View High School at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $7 for adults. Children under 12 can be admitted for $5. One senior at River View, Donovan Rice, not only help to design the set for ‘Guys and Dolls’, but also is a member of the Root Ball Park board. Another senior instrumental on the board is River View student, Dominic Shafer.

Another local production, ‘Nunsense’ will be opening that night at the Triple Locks Theatre at 8 p.m. The cost is $10 for adults and $5 for students.

Both of these productions will be performed again Saturday night as well so that residents have a chance to see both of them. ‘Nunsense’ will continue to be performed May 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, and 18.

Saturday’s festivities begin at noon with a biennial exhibition of contemporary quilts entitled, Pushing the Surface. Some quilters in this exhibit are from out of the country, including England and Japan.  Pick-up maps for the Heritage Quilt Barn Maps are available at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum. These quilts are all locally-made with a heritage and tell their own unique story.

You will not want to miss the Progressive Gala Dinner Saturday at 5:30 p.m. that will follow the historic mural trail. Reservations are required and the cost is $50. Call 622-0326 to make a reservation. The mural trail was organized by Alice Hoover in 2011 and this gala event picks up where she left off. The event not only highlights the murals, but also local culinary artists and a local musician, Johnny Dotson who will be performing at each mural location. The event will start at Chase Bank with hors d’oeuvres by Bob McKenna of Medbery Marketplace. The next stop will be at Central Elementary with Chef Chris Thomas of the SportZone. Then, it’s on to the Coshocton County Courthouse for a southern cuisine by Bruce Kotab of Oscar Rose. The night will end at Edie Ryans with homemade pie and coffee. This is a bring your own beverage event.

Sunday, May 5 will feature world-renown organist, Bradley Hunter Welch at the Presbyterian Church at 3 p.m.

“It is an extraordinary organ and it is an athletic endeavor to play that organ,” said Cornell.

The theme for this year’s Dogwood Festival is No Place Like Home, and the Write on Writer’s Guild is inviting local writers to express that theme through their works at the open mic stories and poems night at the Pomerene Center for the Arts. This theme will continue to be emphasized Thursday night at the No Place Like Home stories and crafts for children from 4 – 5 p.m. at the library. Register for this event by May 2 by calling 622-0956.

“You don’t know what you have in your own backyard,” said Cornell. “We’re highlighting the richness we have here. Our art culture is extremely rich.”

In addition to these events, there will also be concerts and boxed lunches each day from May 6 – 10 at the courthouse lawn at noon. Rain site is the Presbyterian Church.

“It’s not the traditional sort of festival,” said Cornell. “It’s more like a theatre festival where events happen over a period of time. We’re celebrating the arts in our community.”

Cornell wanted to mention the Coshocton Community Choir and the Community Band who are not a part of the festival, but still bring a form of art to the community. If the Dogwood Festival has excluded any event in their schedule, contact them this year so that the event may be added next year. Cornell also wanted to thank Faithe Arden who has helped tremendously with the Root Ball Park project.

Sponsors for the festival include The Home Loan Savings Bank, Philip A. Wagner, Inc., MFM, Dean’s Jewelry, Jones Metal/Jones Zylon, WTNS, Hathaway Inc., Buckeye Fabric, Frase Weir Baker and McCullough, LPA, Coshocton City, Jacobs Vanaman Agency, Century National Bank, SanCasT, Faithful Cleaning, LLC, and Robert Mauch CPA.
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About the Author ()

I have been employed at the Coshocton County Beacon since September 2009 as a news reporter and assistant graphic artist. I am a 2004 graduate of Newcomerstown High School and a 2008 graduate of Capital University with a bachelor’s degree in Professional Writing. I am married to John Scott and live in Newcomerstown. We have two beautiful daughters, Amelia Grace Scott and Leanna Rose Scott.

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