2013 Astoria Art Festival 36 | BOROMAG.COM | SEPTEMBER 2013 ARTS BORO is a proud sponsor of the return of the Astoria Art Festival. From Friday, September 27 through Sunday, October 6th, restaurants and retail spaces throughout Astoria will showcase the work of emerging and established local artists, jumpstarted by an energetic kick-off party and several boozy receptions. The festival is poised to be an exceptional collaborative opportunity to spotlight the growing number of talented Queens artists. We sat down with one of the events founders, Lizabeth Nieves, to discuss the upcoming festival. BORO: What inspired you start the Astoria Arts Festival? LN: I had curated a few smaller events throughout the years in Astoria and wanted to pull something together on a larger scale, where the venues could see that there was a demand for art to be showcased and where the neighborhood could see there was an artistic community in Queens BORO: Who will be participating? LN: We have selected 30 artists from various neighborhoods in Queens, using mixed media, photography, ink, and paintings. BORO: What kind of venues will be exhibiting the art? LN: The venues range from restaurants to bars. Anywhere that had room on their walls and was open to being involved. BORO: What can people who enjoyed last year’s festival look forward to be similar this year? LN: Last year we put together 6 events to showcase spaces and the artists over the course of a weekend. This year the festival will be a week (September 27- October 6) and there will be 8 events. BORO: What can they look forward to that will be different? LN: We are having an instagram photo show with 20 people at the Sparrow after party on the opening night. We will have more music tied to the different events. The Painting by Haydee Naula opening party at Hell Gate Social will have a local favorite band, The Ten Cent F$%^ Flicks. The Lockwood event will have an (continued on page 38)
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