Artosphere 2013 highlights include Spiral Wetland, Sun Boxes, Jack Hanna and more
Artist rendering of Spiral Wetland, an installation by eco artist Stacy Levy.
Courtesy
The lineup of events for the Walton Arts Center’s 2013 Artosphere festival haven’t been formally announced yet, but arts center officials provided a sneak peek of what’s to come this year during a board meeting earlier this week.
The festival, created as a celebration of art, nature, and sustainability, returns to Northwest Arkansas for a fourth year in May and June.
This year’s event includes work by eco artist and sculptor Stacy Levy. The installation, titled “Sprial Wetlands,” is inspired by Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, and features floating wetlands arranged to create a unique shape on the surface of Lake Fayetteville.
The functional work of art is intended to help remove excess nutrients from water by exposing the water to microbial processes facilitated by the plants and organic matter of the soil. The wetlands also help to improve water quality and produce much needed wetland habitats for fish and other water creatures.
Also on tap is an installation of Craig Colorusso’s Sun Boxes, which features solar-powered sound boxes grouped together that play different guitar tones to create a unique sound-experience. Colorusso’s work was recently on display at the East Prospect Exhibition in Fayetteville.
Wildlife is a theme at this year’s festival and will be highlighted by an appearance from famous zookeeper Jack Hanna and the kid-friendly Erth Dinosaur Petting Zoo.
As always, music will play a major role in 2013.
The popular Trail Mix concert series returns to Artosphere this year, but will move from Lake Fayetteville Trail to the downtown Frisco Trail area. Also planned are performances by the Artosphere festival orchestra, who will play for the first time inside the 200-seat performance hall at Crystal Bridges. Expect numerous “pop up” concerts around Northwest Arkansas as well.
The full lineup for the event is expected to be announced in early March.
Awesome! This is all great. Love the spiral wetlands that’s gonna be cool.
I hope they are not introducing some invasive plants to our water supply. I wasn’t real keen on the idea of surrounding our drinking water with a strip of asphatic bitumen.
Lake Fayetteville doesn’t supply drinking water to the area; it comes from Beaver Lake.
This is Jodi from Walton Arts Center chiming in. Stacy’s project is designed specifically to improve the quality of the water by introducing native wetland species. Thanks for the sneak peek, Flyer friends! Can’t wait to share more later in the spring.
I love the Artosphere festival and the sunboxes installation is going to be very cool. Stacy’s spiral wetland/bioremediation installation is beautiful…check out her website here: http://www.stacylevy.com/installations/
This sounds rad!