08-06-08 SBMA’s Festival of Banners Adds Color to Downtown Cityscape

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MEDIA RELEASE Wednesday, August 6, 2008 9:45 AM Contact: Mikki Dobski, Dir. of Communications & Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-1564 .Iessi Lentych Loyd, Curator of Education/Public Programs, SBMA, 235-9102 Marco Mariam, Director, Downtown South Bend, Inc., 282-1110 SBMA's Festival of Banners Adds Color to Downtown Cityscape The South Bend Museum of Art (SBMA) presents Real or Imagined. -Festival of Banners 2008. Working with the support of the City of South Bend and DTSB, 62 unique and original banners will be installed on light poles along Jefferson and Wayne Street in downtown South Bend to culminate alarge-scale public art project created by local citizens of all ages. The Festival of Banners will kickoff with a news conference and unveiling on Friday, August 8th at 10:30 a.m. on Jefferson Blvd. in the Century Center parking lot, just west of the Jefferson Bridge. The Museum will be joined by Mayor Steve Luecke and Marco Mariam, Downtown South Bend Inc. for the ceremony. Winning designers in three categories, adult, teen & children will also be announced at the news conference. The banners will be on public display for two months. In Spring 2008, a call for participants was put out for entries from schools and from the community. The response was overwhelming with over 200 designs received. Participants of all ages were invited to submit one original design that was "Real or Imagined." Banner designs may depict unique scenes from the artist's life either real or imagined. After the entries were juried, efforts were spent coordinating 62 artists to come to the museum at appointed times to paint their accepted entry on a 24"x48" piece of canvas. Banners were energetically painted over atwo- month time frame. Banner artist Rubia Hayans (age 17) said, "I love art and wanted to try painting. Plus, I wanted to try to win an award. It was really cool, the assistants were nice and helpful, and the atmosphere was fun!" SBMA Marketing Manager Amy Kleinert said, "The Festival of Banners is an amazing project because in incorporates so many aspects of community. The project is so successful because of that reason. It takes the entire community to make this event happen. Volunteers, student interns, artists of all ages, dedicated employees from the City and DTSB, and the staff at the museum all partake to make this public art project come to fruition." -30-