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Celebrating A Decade
Festival Hall to Temporarily Change Roles During the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis
Festival Hall, Greensboro’s premier arts venue and cultural center adapts to follow new state guidelines.
Festival Hall will morph into a space for governmental meetings at least until the end of September. The Board of Directors adopted a resolution last week to halt all public and private events at Festival Hall through September 2020 and allow the large space to be used for city and other governmental meetings.
Under the executive orders from Governor Kemp, the hall was not allowed to be open until July 1, 2020. Performance venues were the last entities to be granted opening status. The new guidelines require reduced capacity and stringent safety protocols providing serious challenges for performance and event centers.
“During the shutdown, we had to cancel or reschedule many of our wonderful events. The Oconee Performance Arts Society (OPAS) rescheduled their fall show to spring 2021 and the Lake Country Players rescheduled all three of their 2020 performances and will resume in 2021. The Doug Stone concert is rescheduled date TBD,” states director, Nicole Chillemi “Arts organizations have been hit especially hard during this pandemic.”
Festival Hall decided to be proactive and come up with a creative use for the building during this time. Many meeting rooms are nice and cozy and in normal times work well for their functions. During a time where social distancing is necessary, however, these rooms are just too small. With over 4000 square feet, the Carolyn Reynolds Parker Auditorium offers a safer space for small meetings.
“We want to do our part. Instead of being closed, Festival Hall will provide a safe space for necessary meetings to help keep basic government functioning,” says Chillemi. “This wonderful building built through the Works Progress Administration in 1939 has housed all manner of agencies that have served this community for decades.”
Festival Hall continues its mission to promote and support the arts with a virtual “art walk” available on the Festival Hall Facebook page -www.facebook.com/festivalhallga. Additional virtual content will be offered throughout this pause as well. Though typical gatherings and events are temporarily suspended, Festival Hall will continue to plan for the future when we can all gather safely and celebrate our area’s rich artistic community.
Please sign up for our e-mail list on our website www.festivalhallga.com and receive updates on happenings at the hall. Contact director, Nicole Chillemi with future booking inquiries at nicole@festivalhallga.com or 762-243-8022.
Festival Hall Virtual Art Walk
Festival Hall is filled with vibrant art that is created by local artists throughout the community. There is so much fun art to see inside of Festival Hall!
While Festival Hall remains closed to the public, they have created a fun way for the community to enjoy the artwork that is displayed inside. Follow “Festival Hall, Greensboro GA” on Facebook and take a virtual walk through the galleries of Festival Hall, and explore original art presented by the Greensboro Art Alliance.
“We wanted to do something for the community as we remained closed,” said Nicole Chillemi, Festival Hall director. “Festival Hall is very fortunate to be able to display the wonderful works of The Greensboro Arts Alliance and we thought it would be great to share these works as a virtual offering. ”
The Greensboro Arts Alliance was started over 20 years ago by Greensboro and Greene County Artists to promote visual arts through various programs and events for our community. The Greensboro Arts Alliance offers beginning and professional artists the opportunity to exhibit at Festival Hall, BankSouth and other venues in Greensboro. GAA artists work in a variety of media including oils, watercolors, acrylics, pastels, textiles, photography, etc.
Each day, the Festival Hall Facebook Page is showcasing a different piece of artwork that can be found in its galleries. The current collection contains an eclectic array of watercolors, oils, pastels, acrylics, mixed media, photography and cross stitch.
Most of the artwork in the Festival Hall Galleries is for sale. If you are interested in a piece of artwork that is displayed on the Festival Hall Art Walk contact Nicole Chillemi, director of Festival Hall at (762) 243-8022, for more details on how the art can become part of your gallery at home.
Motown on Main – August 24, 2018
Motown on Main – August 24th – 7PM
All tickets for this performance are general admission and are available online at www.festivalhallga.com, or at the Greene County Chamber of Commerce, 111 North Main Street, Greensboro, GA 30642 for $25 each. Tickets will also be available at the door. Door will open up at 6:30 PM. Be sure to bring your dancing shoes because the dance floor will be open!
For those who purchased tickets online, please brings a copy of your ticket or receipt (paper or digital copy) that you receive via email. Thank you and we hope to see you there!
Children’s Theatre Camp Students Perform What A Wonderful World
Festival Hall was pleased to present What A Wonderful World to over a hundred guests on Saturday afternoon June 30th. Nineteen students from the ages of 7-12 years old made up the talented cast. The performance was the follow-up presentation for the theatre camp held the week of June 25th. The production and camp were written and directed by members from the The Arts Barn. Donna Brelsford, of Melodia Studios, provided vocal direction. The production featured a cruise that took audience members to several countries. While aboard the cruise ship, they were entertained with traditional square dancing from The United States of America, tinikling from The Philippines, and hand drumming from West Africa. Also enjoyed were various fables and folktales that came to life: “The Lion and the Mouse” thought to have originated in Greece, “Why The Monkey Gets the Banana” from Brazil, and “Zomo the Rabbit” a West African tale. The show concluded with a heartwarming rendition of Louis Armstrong’s, “What a Wonderful World”, sung by the whole cast both with their beautiful voices and through sign language.
An original generative theatre presentation, Journey of Perception, followed the children’s performance by students 13 -18 years of age. The cast participated in a week long generative theatre workshop, collaborating and creating a piece that explored specific emotions: conflict, love, silliness, gratitude, pain, happiness and vulnerability. Through dance, song, spoken word, creative instrument ensembles, and poetry the performers took the audience on a very relatable journey. Those in attendance were touched by both the quality of performance as well as the depth of expression and insight. After the performance, an uplifting talk-back took place between the performers and audience members. A great way for each to give and receive feedback.
“We had so much fun during the camp and workshop at Festival Hall. The talents and willingness of the students, staff and volunteers were key in making such a wonderful production possible in just six short days. Thank you so much to all who participated and helped make this week a success,” said Lora Garcia, owner and director of The Arts Barn.
“We were excited to host this wonderful learning experience for students,” said Becky Cronic, Festival Hall Director. Festival Hall hosts an annual Children’s Theatre Camp each summer and plans to release the 2019 camp dates this fall.
Some of our special memories from this year’s camp:
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