By Mario Carr EBS CONTRIBUTOR
Nearly 100 artists will display, raffle off and sell their work at the Big Sky Artisan Festival on Saturday.
The festival has been around since 2017 and was adopted by the Arts Council of Big Sky in 2021. Located at Len Hill Park and BASE from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 22, the festival will feature over 90 different booths representing a great variety of art. Open to everyone in the community, this event is a place for local and regional artists to showcase their art for all.
“Big Sky has become a center of arts and culture in southwest Montana,” the Arts Council states on their website.
This year’s festival will incorporate a few new features, including stage performances, a beer and mimosa garden from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and an art raffle to raise funds for art education programs put on by the Arts Council.
There will be four performances total, one every 90 minutes starting at 10:30 a.m. with the MSU African Student Association. At noon will be a storytelling performance by Leo Davis of the Blackfoot Tribe. A Sizzling Salsa performance will follow at 1:30 p.m., and finally, at 3 p.m., perhaps the most engaging performance will be a country line dancing performance from the Western Roots Dance Company.
“We want there to be an educational aspect to these performances… We want people to learn something, whether it’s the history of the dance, or the literal dance moves,” Jane Liivoja, the events director for the Arts Council, told EBS.
“I can’t stress enough how organic it is… it’s very special… the artist community runs deep,” Liivoja said when explaining how the festival has steadily grown over the years. With so many different artists to see, Liivoja is excited about the raffle and the number of artists contributing to it. Raffle tickets will be sold for $5 with a total of four winners announced throughout the day.
“We want to make it an overall worthwhile, fun, captivating experience,” Livoja said. “What a way to spend a Saturday.”
