SaratogaArtsFest brimming with events for young people

SaratogaArtsFest 2010 offers an impressive line-up of events for art lovers of all stripes and levels of experience, and as part of this effort festival organizers are taking special steps to bring the arts to young people and families.

The citywide festival, Thursday through Sunday, June 10-13, will offer a wide range of events and hands-on art activities for young audiences, from tots to teenagers. In addition to designated events for young people, noted with a special symbol in the festival guide, the general ArtsFest line-up offers plenty to attract youthful festival goers and their families.

On all four of the ArtsFest days there will be an Art Rally for Kids, organized by the Children's Museum at Saratoga, which will send children and their parents on an art and architecture scavenger hunt around town.  Hands-on art activities will include book illustration workshops, jewelry-making from recycled materials, a circus arts workshop, veggie stamping at the Farmers Market, and Family Sunday at Skidmore College's Tang Museum. Local artists demonstrating their various skills - weaving, glassblowing, silversmithing, and painting - will allow children to observe artistic creation.

Music will run the gamut, from performances by the Empire State Youth Orchestra's Jazz Ensemble 2 to the World's Largest Kindergarten Concert, featuring students from three local elementary schools. In addition, the ArtsFest Center Stage will feature ongoing programming on Friday evening and all day Saturday at the corner of Broadway and Division Street, offering musical performances, musical storytelling, family dance activities, and more.

Theater productions for young audiences will include An Aesop Adventure by students from Greenfield Elementary School and Scenes in Flight by the Flying Kite Children's Theater. Among the dance programs is TAKE Dance/Family Dance Performance, presenting three short works by Japanese choreographer Takehiro Ueyama.

On Sunday SaratogaArtsFest will present Family Day at Skidmore College, featuring a cabaret by the Saratoga Children's Theatre, the Amazing Kids Circus, hands-on art activities at the Tang Museum, a guided nature walk in Skidmore?s North Woods, and musical performances by students from the Saratoga Springs schools. The music events will highlight Skidmore?s new Arthur Zankel Music Center.

Special youth prices are available for the ARTSPASS, which provides access to more than 75 events during the festival weekend.  Children under 4 are admitted free; for children 4 to 12 the ARTSPASS costs $5, and for students 13 and older the cost is $15. The Family Four pack provides weekend passes for two adults and two youths for $70.

For more information and the full ArtsFest schedule, visit www.SaratogaArtsFest.org.