When it comes to the annual Taste of the Arts, you’re sure to get your fill of the northeast Indiana’s arts scene.

On Saturday, Aug. 24, from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., the streets around the Arts Campus will be closed to make way for 11 stages, visual artists, vendors, and a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) area for youths.

All this is free of charge. Arts United is just asking you to soak in all the arts and culture our area has to offer.

“We have committees upon committees just to make sure this is possible,” said Rachelle Reinking, director of communications for Arts United. “Between the different performances and the different visual arts component and the kids’ activities over at the STEAM park, it’s a bunch of different efforts. We come together as one to really make this possible. 

“I always think it’s a large team, but for what we put on, it’s a small, mighty team.”

Get to know cultural district

After three years of Taste of the Arts being held across a large downtown footprint that covered the Arts Campus, The Landing, and Promenade Park, festivities will be more centralized this year.

“What we heard from most people was that they preferred to have it in a small space to walk, whether it was accessibility needs or having small children,” Reinking said. “We originally spread out for our 2021 festival just to continue with the social distancing post-COVID. We’ve gotten to the point where it’s not the immediate need. People are more comfortable, so we’ve scaled back on that and refocused on the Cultural District.”

Despite it being focused on the Arts Campus, it’s still a pretty large footprint.

“It allows people to get a better understanding of what the Cultural District is around here,” Reinking said. “Some folks don’t necessarily know all that that entails or think it’s just the Main Street 300 block. But it does include other organizations, including The History Center, including all the way down to Hall Community Arts Center.

“It’s kind of getting the public to understand what all is connected. What are all these different experiences that are available to everybody here in the city.”

While festivities will be centralized along Main Street and Freimann Square, there will be food and drink vendors along Barr Street to Berry Street, as well as a stage in the Barrett McNagny parking lot. There will also be an indoor stage in The History Center, as well as a Human Library.

Due to the weekly YLNI Farmers Market taking place, many activities in this area will not begin until 1 p.m., as the market runs 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Farther east, Hall Community Arts Center, which houses Cinema Center, will also be involved with an indoor stage and Fort Wayne Dance Collective Movement, as well as films. Outside the building will be another stage, as well as the Allen County Conservation Trail and aerialists.

“We’re excited to activate that space, and hopefully get some more folks in there to learn about those organizations,” Reinking said.

This block will also house the My Autism Ally Sensory Tent, with a Quiet Zone also set up in Fort Wayne Museum of Art and Auer Center on Main Street.

Of course, the regular spots will be hosting events, as Fort Wayne Museum of Art will have a stage, and there will be another outside Arts United as it is closed for renovations. Auer Center will have two indoor stages, as well as one in its parking lot. 

Learning experience

At Freimann Square, another outdoor stage will be set up, as well as the STEAM Park for children.

The STEAM Park will be a great spot for children to learn where art and technology converge.

“We’ve had Civic Theatre have a lighting demonstration to show how the color gels affect the appearance of how a stage can look,” Reinking said. “It’s really cool to see the physics of the thing is more creative in nature.

And get children involved in the arts is a big part of the festival.

“It really is an opportunity for kids to learn early and get interested,” Reinking said. “Maybe they find something they didn’t know existed. Now that sparks the learning for it.”

Performances galore

Of course, while there will be plenty of visual artists and vendors, the stages will be busy the entire day.

“We have quite a variety,” Reinking said of the 11 stages, six of which are outside. “From the performance standpoint alone, those stages will have everything from different genres of music — solo acts and larger bands — we’ve got dance, we’ve got theater, there’s a little comedy. It’s really just highlighting all that, in addition to some of our buskers and local aerialists who will be doing some demos and allowing people to be a little hands-on and try it themselves.”

Among the performers will be the Indiana Musical Theatre Foundation, Fort Wayne International Folk Dance, First Presbyterian Theater, Fort Wayne Civic Theatre, Fort Wayne Youtheatre, Fort Wayne Children’s Choir, Fort Wayne Dance Collective, and Broken Pencil Improv Comedy.

When it comes to the music, there’s a wide range to choose from, be it the blues of Rainee Perdue to the psychedelic music of Heaven’s Gateway Drugs to the metal of Damage.

“Our goal for the festival is that it’s not a certain music genre,” Reinking said. “Our goal is to continue to showcase just how many different types of performing arts there are in northeast Indiana. We look to be as inclusive as we can be with these acts. It does include a few metal bands, an orchestra. 

“It’s a bit of everything to everybody’s taste. The goal is to maybe have someone experience something they may not have necessarily sought out on their own. Now, they find their new local favorite band.”

Among the other bands set to perform at Zen BBQ, Streetlamps for Spotlights, KelsiCote, Midnight Mimosas, Entropic Blue, JJ & McRae, Heartland Sings, Hot Mess Mariachi, Ross Kinsey, Jensen Snyder, Hold the Line, and Old Dog New Tricks.

With so many different options, it’s safe to say you won’t be bored while checking out some organizations and buildings you may not have even known existed.

For a full list of activities and locations, go to artsunited.org/taste