Southold UU Church Hosts Spring Art Festival

The First Universalist Church of Southold will hold a Virtual Spring Art Festival via Zoom on Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 7 p.m. A link to the event can be found at the church website: firstuniversalistsouthold.org. &nbsp”The Universalist Church of Southold had an annual art festival for quite a few years in the Fall called ‘Harvest of the Arts,'” said Suzette Reiss of Orient, who is organizing the festival for the church. “It featured an art opening of fine art from local artists, and we also had poetry and music presented during the weekend wherein people could still see the art hanging, and enjoy the poetry reading and music concerts. It was a combination fundraiser, and an opportunity to bring the community together to join us for a few days in honor of the arts.” &nbspThe church, which had stood on the big bend in Southold, burned down in 2015, and the congregation has been meeting in other spaces, and, since Covid, virtually. &nbsp”Since the church burned down, we have not hosted much for the community. And since we were not sure what space we could use- due to Covid restrictions- we decided to move forward with having a Virtual zoom format type event celebrating the arts,” added Ms. Reiss.  &nbsp The festival will feature original paintings, photography, performance art, music, poetry, and theatre, all created and performed by local fine artists, musicians, poets, and actors, along with virtual visits to artists’ studios. &nbspVisual artists to be featured include Kip Bedell, Kara Hoblin, Diane Alec Smith, Janet Blake, Hans Rieger, Gerard Lehner, James Pritchard, Garance, Verona Peñalba, Nancy Wissemann-Widrig and John Wissemann; photographers Keith Krejci, Paula J. Hepner, Dawn Olenick and Susan Johnson and videos by Scott McIntire, Lori Hollander and Anne Sherwood Pundyk.  &nbspThere will be poetry readings by Colin Palmer, Mary James and Betsey Dickerson, original music by George Cork Maul and performances by Charlotte Day, Ben Eager and James Pritchard, an excerpt from the Alba Concert featuring Margo Andrea and dance by Kendra Mace Clark. &nbsp “We welcome all to join and while it is a free event, all donations to help us with our building fund are gratefully accepted,” said Ms. Reiss. “Also, the artwork can be purchased — and a percentage of the proceeds will go towards the building fund as well.” &nbsp