Youth Arts Festival set for March 31

Child-friendly activities are part of the annual Youth Arts Festival at ECU, scheduled this year for March 31.

The Eighth Annual Youth Arts Festival at East Carolina University is set for Saturday, March 31 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the mall area in the center of campus.

More than 100 visual and performing artists from ECU and across the region will share their creative talents with children and their families. The event is free and open to the public. In case of rain, the festival will be held in the Leo. W. Jenkins Fine Arts Building, home of the School of Art and Design at ECU.

Family-friendly activities such as wheel-thrown ceramics, watercolor painting, weaving, papermaking, printmaking, portraiture, blacksmithing and other arts will be offered. Children will also have the opportunity to create their own artwork with the help of ECU art students, faculty members and professional artists.

In addition to visual artists, children will also be able to interact with musical, dance and theatrical group. Some of the groups scheduled to attend include Twisted Knot, Red Herring Puppets, Bouncing Bulldogs, Magic of African Rhythm, ECU Dancers with Tomi Galaska, ECU Jazz Combo, Greenville Civic Ballet and Reel Deep.

The Youth Arts Festival at ECU coincides with Youth Arts Month, which is sponsored by the North Carolina Art Education Association. The School of Art and Design at ECU is again organizing the festival.

This event is being supported with grants from the ECU Office of the Provost, ECU College of Fine Arts and Communication, Coca-Cola, The Belk Fund, Friends of the School of Art and Design, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Ledonia Wright Center and the Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge. Other sponsors at ECU include the Department of Recreation and Wellness, the College of Fine Arts and Communication, the School of Music, the School of Theater and Dance, the Student Activities Board, and the Office of Institutional Diversity, and ECU Department of Recreation and Wellness and Joyner Library.

For more information, visit the festival website at http://www.ecu.edu/soad/youtharts.cfm