Production of Broad and High is funded in part by the Greater Columbus Arts Council, supporting arts, advancing and connecting the community to cultural events, artists and classes at Columbus arts.com.

Hi and welcome to this special edition of Broad and High.

Funding for our show is provided by the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and you probably know that they put on a world class arts festival every year in downtown Columbus.

We believe it's an important story, and that's why we've asked Jamie Goldstein from GCA to review what we can expect at this year's event.

So stay with us.

Join Broad and High for a special behind the scenes look at the Columbus Arts Festival.

Meet the artists.

Learn about all the new and exciting activities, music and public art, all on this special edition of Broad and High right now on Wosu TV.

Thanks.

Jamie Goldstein of the Greater Columbus Arts Council, thanks so much for being with us.

Absolutely.

Tell me a little bit about this year's arts Festival.

It is the 54th Columbus Arts Festival, June 12th through the 14th this year.

And of course, we're back on the riverfront, and we have all of the things that people love about the Arts Festival 300 plus exhibiting artists, six stages of performance.

Some are new, so we'll talk a little bit about that.

The big local arts tent with all of our wonderful local arts groups, artists demonstrations, the hands on activity area which is bigger and better this year with lots of activities for families, those kids and those who are young at heart.

We have great food from local restaurants and food trucks and so much more for everyone.

Talk to us a little bit about the History of Arts Festival here in Columbus.

The arts festival started in 1961 on the state House lawn.

So it was much smaller then.

And it was a big community festival.

Over the years we've grown.

We were on the riverfront for many years.

And then when the bridge construction started and the park construction started, we moved over to the Discovery District with all of those wonderful institutions featured in the Columbus Museum of Art.

And we were there for four years from 2007 through 2011.

And then in the during the city's bicentennial, 2012, we moved back to the riverfront to celebrate the beautiful new, downtown parks that we have.

So we're very excited to be back on riverfront.

And I think that's our forever home.

And we'll be doing a lot about with the Emerging Artist program, too.

Awesome.

Yes, absolutely.

We've got some great emerging artists.

And that program has been in place since 2011.

So, look forward to talking to you about that.

That's all for local artists.

So good stuff there.

Thanks, Jamie.

So let's take a look at a couple of this year's emerging artists.

I went to the Columbus College of Art and design.

I majored in illustration.

I was planning on being an illustrator, but instead, I just all became obsessed with doing paintings of wildlife.

And I guess I haven't really looked back.

I've been painting for as long as I can remember.

Since I could hold a pencil or paintbrush, I've been making art.

My favorite medium is watercolor.

That's what I've always illustrated with.

So whenever I do watercolor, you know I can use illustration border paper, but unfortunately you can't do watercolor on canvas.

So basically I use the acrylic like watercolor.

I just like the the drippy, watery, beautiful ness of that kind of paint.

I've always loved nature and animals.

But I painted other things, you know, anything that I could.

Until I started volunteering at the Ohio Wildlife Center.

And I just became absolutely enthralled with the native wildlife.

The Ohio Wildlife center, they have an education center as well as a hospital.

So I volunteer at the hospital.

I get to do all kinds of hands on.

Just learning, you know, holding a great horned owl.

You really get to understand how great horned owls feet and wings and eyes work.

You know, the other day I was walking my dogs, and there was a chipping sparrow in a tree that I pass by, and it's just a sparrow.

But they only come here in the summer.

And it was the first one that I had seen a lot of my.

My purpose is to show people how much beautiful wildlife we have.

We have just beautiful raptors, beautiful waterfowl, warblers that come in the spring and even a wood frog.

You know, it's just a little in Vivian, but they're just so beautiful.

Every species has so many amazing qualities, and people just walk right by.

And that's not really their fault.

They just don't know.

And so I try to to paint those animals so that they can they can become connected to those and realize how much beauty we're surrounded with.

I'm very excited for the Columbus Arts Festival.

I go every year.

You know, bring the dogs and all.

It's just I just love it.

So I'm really excited to to actually be a part of it this year.

I've always been a collector of things.

All kinds of things.

And at some point, they just kind of mesh together.

I was working on paintings, and I would start, incorporating them into drawers or old boxes.

So it kind of started like that, and then it grew from there.

I'm pretty sure, you know, depending on what the little pieces and parts are, that I can find something fairly quickly that's going to kind of come together into a piece that I like.

I created all these little words that I felt like we're guardians.

I do think of them as guardians.

I create the little heads, from proxy sculpts.

But I lost my dad a few years ago, and, he was, and, more of an amateur bird watcher towards the end of.

And at the time he was here.

And, I almost wonder if that is some kind of, influence that I don't know.

I don't even know if it is or not, but I feel like they kind of surfaced not long after I lost him.

And I really enjoy the hunt for things.

You know, I look for I tend I find myself looking at objects differently now, and maybe it's shape or, you know, the material that it's made out of, or I can kind of picture it's, it's the esthetic or or the way all of those little pieces together just feel like it just fits.

I think it's interesting to think about them and to, think about them having a different purpose at some point in time.

But they're still here for some reason.

I pour a lot of love into them.

And, I think not just when I do it, but but when other artists do it or musicians or writers, it's like you can tell that soulful kind of quality.

I think that just comes from that, that love.

I call it 3D sketching, sometimes putting different objects together to see what they look like.

The more recent pieces with some of the, like adding some of the feathery kind of elements I've been calling them, warrior princesses.

I know that's a little cheesy, but I mean, I like these images of these women.

Just kind of strong women and kind of making them into these, I don't know, warriors in a way.

I'm really drawn to women and children and photos or like, couplings or groupings of people.

Especially if there's something kind of odd, you know, about it.

I feel like I've kind of revived them in a way.

And, I like combining them to come up with some, you know, I don't know, to give them a new identity or a new life.

I love making them.

I mean, I love the final pieces.

But I love that process.

Like trying something new, putting it together.

Just the way that feels when you try something and it works.

It's kind of an addictive thing.

Jamie, talk to us a little bit more about the Emerging Artist Program.

The Emerging Artist program was started in 2011 during our 50th anniversary, and it's really the goal of the program is to help, artists in central Ohio get their get their foot in the door with a national festival experience.

And that means at any point in their career, whether they're just starting out or they're an accomplished artist, being a festival artist, a little different, there are things you need to know that you might not be aware of, no matter where you are in your career.

So, we started this program with the hope that we could help those artists go from, their first festival experience to more either with the Columbus Arts Festival or at other festivals nationwide.

So we offer them a reduced booth fee.

We do a boot camp for them.

So did you know you need the Cape at the Arts festival?

We, really try and help train them about what to expect in a festival experience.

We have about ten emerging artists each year.

It's competitive.

There are usually over 30 applications for that particular discipline.

We have 15 other disciplines, though, and so once you're in emerging artists, we hope you'll come back and, possibly jury in within your own discipline.

And that has happened a number of times over the course of the program.

Angela McKee, a recent emerging artists actually went into jury, into her discipline the following year and was an award winner, which comes with cash.

Cash prize.

So, it's a, I think a great program for local artists, and we're really excited to see it grow.

Thanks, Jamie.

And take a look at one of last year's emerging artists.

This is another example of the microscopic work of 19th century German naturalist Ernst Haeckel.

The lab partners exists at the intersection of art, science and technology.

We find ourselves taking his store ethically time honored artistic techniques, and we're advancing them, and we're transforming them using modern technology.

So we're using centuries old silver spin casting to make jewelry.

But instead of traditional lost wax processes, we're using laser cutters to create the original models in acrylic and then casting those in silver.

The pattern is referred to as a raster, and it's actually burning out all of the areas from the original file.

It's just about finished with it's raster pass.

It's now going to make a vector pass in which the laser is putting the outside shape from the acrylic.

So what we like to do at the lab partners is intensely study traditional techniques of art and then find new, innovative technological ways of advancing that technique.

One day I might be working in clay, the next day I might be working in silver.

The next day I might be cutting acrylic.

And I think there's something about my personality that is based on that.

Multiple irons in the fire at the same time.

Another wonderful, series of products that we make, a series of earrings and pendants based on the Japanese artistic technique known as Sumi Nagasaki.

Sumi, Nagasaki, ink floating so literally floating ink in a small dish of water, using a very small needle to integrate those inks and swirls and then placing our black pendants on top of that.

What happens is the surface tension of the water causes the ink to slap right up onto the pendant.

And it creates this wonderful marbled pattern, like, older books.

You might see the inside jacket cover being a marbled piece of paper.

We're doing those now with pendants and earrings.

If we had to find one word to describe to the lab partners, philosophy, it would be adornment, right?

Adornment of the physical body with jewelry.

Adornment of the living space with tiles.

The idea that once we as humans have taken care of our base physical needs of food and water and shelter, the very next thing we seem to want to do is beautify ourselves and our environment.

We find that, the collective legacy of humans involves really two things.

The father, you go back with hominids, you're going to find tool use, and you're going to find art, whether it's cave paintings in Lascaux or a chipped piece of sandstone that's used to cut.

As a tool, these things have been with us, really from the very beginning.

And so the constant evolution of human tool use and the greater intimacy that we have with those tools, I think right now is mirrored in the, democratization of, manufacturing processes.

So as a member of the Columbus Idea Foundry, I find I have access to tools that otherwise would have been locked up inside of warehouses and manufacturing firms, and I can use those to create new, interesting, fun, wearable art.

So, Jamie, what are some of the fun things that are happening this year?

Well, we're bringing back some, some things that were new last year that were really popular.

The dance stage is coming back.

Construction, which is a benefit for Mid-Ohio food Bank, will be a competition this year with eight teams.

The chalk drawing, which is sponsored by Pieta, an Italian street drawing.

We're really excited about that.

The film tent will be back.

Better than ever.

Cartoons in the morning.

So it's always a popular thing.

And then we have some new things this year that we're really excited about.

There hasn't been a jazz stage at the festival for a number of years.

So we're bringing back, Sharky's Jazz and Blues Club.

We have an acoustic lounge that will be in the courtyard of the Cultural Arts Center, and we have, the Franklinton Stage, which will be on Westridge, close to 400 West Rich, and that will be mostly theater.

So lots of great new attractions and new events for people to participate in.

And where can people find all of the musicians and acts that will be performing?

We have, Facebook page, of course, and we have a Twitter account at Bus Arts Fest.

And of course, our website, Columbus Arts festival.org.

And then I couldn't I would be remiss without mentioning the ABC six mainstage, which is where lots of wonderful musicians locally are performing.

So thanks, Jamie, and take a look at the Salty Caramels, who will be performing on this year's mainstage.

Yeah.

Here we go.

1234.

Oh, gosh.

Well, Charlie caramels have been around for about four years.

Molly, actually, started the group.

I may not be so, showing up.

We were trying to find something that was local and sort of fitting for women, and so we thought ice cream and Jeni's ice cream, of course, be the local favorite.

We we found that that name Salty Caramels sort of fit the description perfectly.

Those being sweet and salty.

I know I, I think most people in the Midwest say caramel, but the further south you go, it does tend to go more caramel, or how you were raised by both are acceptable is.

When I passionately kiss you.

I think there's something sort of endearing about women playing music together.

It's sort of a vulnerability that you have when you're on stage with a group of musicians anyways.

Then you throw the mix in.

As women, it's even more emotional almost, but also more precious in a way, you.

You know, we have.

A lot of different unique instruments that we like to incorporate.

It's time to relax and it's time.

To put this suitcase.

Bass drum was a lot of fun to make.

There's actually a blog entry on our website that shows how to make it.

So, you know, just the old timey instruments.

For me, it's just that sense of nostalgia.

Day unpaid baby, I'm gonna miss you.

We we just released the, Damn Good Woman record, and we, I think, have 11 songs on the on the record, which is a lot for a first record.

And we're kind of like, we're really proud of it because it's the first body of work for this group of girls.

So now that we have a video kind of paired with one of the tunes, we're hoping that more people will check out the music that we have and the music that we're about to put out soon.

So, well, the title of the track is called She'll Be Coming For You, and it just kind of embodies that salty, like, vengeful flavor that sometimes women have.

And it's not meant to be a serious song.

And all at all, it's supposed to be kind of in good fun.

Kind of shows how women have each other's backs.

Yeah, I think you mess with one of us.

We're all coming for you.

And.

This is the unfortunate story about a man who.

He had me dancing in the palm of his hand.

He had nothing to not say no to his wife.

Then he left, and I stayed up all night.

All night.

I don't cross.

Me.

Don't cross.

That's not.

Sorry.

Oh, be so sorry.

Be then.

Je suis.

Feel.

Thank you, lucky star.

My weapons.

Only my guitar.

Planning and planning.

I swear I make it right.

You right?

You better get a head start running for his life.

I made this and my daddy after him.

And I'm broke.

But I will sing his name.

Songs that I'm so nice.

I'm so nice.

Don't cross me, don't cross this song.

Sorry.

Oh, be so sorry.

Sorry.

Benji.

Shoot me so I feel.

Thank your lucky stars.

My weapons all mean I get up.

I'm.

She'll be coming.

Fire!

She'll be coming.

Fire to be coming.

Fire!

She'll be coming for you.

I will get you in your head.

Me on your dream.

Fire shall expose some of your land.

She and every girl looks your way.

You'll already know your name.

They will pick you up.

But you will be up.

You.

She'll be coming.

Fire!

She'll be coming.

Fire.

She'll be coming for.

She'll be coming for it.

She'll be coming for.

She'll be coming for.

She'll be coming for.

She'll be coming for.

She'll be coming.

Fire!

Your support of you means that we can continue to bring you arts and culture programing.

That you won't see anywhere else.

Please call the number on the screen or go to talk and become a financial supporter today.

And thank you.

So, Jamie, how are all the artists and performers selected?

Well, we have a process.

The applications open in October.

Over 1100 artists apply for the 300 exhibiting artist slots.

So we have a jury that comes together in February and selects those artists through their disciplines.

As I said, we have 15 different disciplines.

And the very popular ones, like ceramics and jewelry artists.

You'll find more of those in the festival, but we have wood and leather and glass and fiber and, so much for people to see at the festival for our performers.

The application also opens in October and the deadline is in February.

And then we have a jury of our performance committee that comes together to, to select and to schedule the acts so that people see something new every year as well as their favorite performers.

And do I hear you have an art shark?

We do our festival mascot and the consummate performer.

You can find him in the fountain during the festival.

The fabulous bicentennial fountain.

So kids love to play with the art shark.

He's a lot of fun.

With public art.

We love it.

And speaking of public art, there's a lot along the route to the Columbus Arts Festival.

Take a look.

Initially.

When I came here, I. I've never looked at Columbus from the point of view of really doing something out in the city, surrounded around the city, and looked at different sites and proposed different kind of ideas in my mind of things I can do.

But I heard someone say that silo, River meant hair of the deer, but that kind of piqued an interest.

And I started thinking about deer and and I it was supposed to be at that kind of in this area where people lounged around and walked around to communities, and I just started thinking about deers and instead of people doing the same thing, just kind of lounging around.

And that's really where the idea came from.

When I do have a project, that's the first thing I do is start drawing and making notes and just kind of thanking, getting it out of my head onto a sheet of paper and, it can go whatever, you know, any direction kind of.

So there's, there's several proposals that I made, not just the deer I proposed.

For Spring and Long Street.

Neon said spring and long.

That would be on these, terminals that people go in and out.

And there's one called the Columbus Stump, which is a huge tree stump with carvings in every conceivable language says wish.

Some of them are absolutely impossible and know that's more than the possible impossible.

Some of them were made.

Others are just wishful thinking, you know?

Whatever.

So, there's it's really more of a thought process.

I think that happens on paper.

And, I.

Did the drawings and had ideas of what they would look like.

I've gotten forms from a taxidermist, in Louisiana.

And they're actual styrofoam forms that, taxidermy guys used to put them, you know, after they skinned the deer and they put it back on.

And I used that as an armature for worked in, I think in the foundry.

And I've worked that for years.

And Walla Walla, Washington.

So we set up sort of these pieces and built it and kind of constructed them into the forms that you see out there now, and covered them with clay and modeled the clay.

And then they made and.

Mold from.

And it's it's hard to ignore when you're talking about deer.

I think people instantly have, an image in their head of whatever deer they see as a sculpture in your mind.

And these are really you kind of have to be there.

You have to go look, because they've been humanized in the sense that they still look like deer, but they're also human.

And it's for a lot of their joints.

You would never see joints like that on the real deer.

But I did that to kind of, I think make them accessible to.

I think that's what's so seductive to me about it is, is that it becomes really something that people want to want to want to be with and want to, you know, actually touch.

No matter how, how, how you think through something, as soon as it's there, it's real and it becomes something else.

It becomes its own, its own life, you know, and and that's really important.

I think that it does something that it doesn't just sit there and say, I'm a politician, I'm a general.

And within this one sitting, as a deer and you know it and it's not saying anything, you know, it's just sitting there.

And I love it when somebody responds in a way I never anticipated is or says something you never anticipated and makes you think about it in a way you never thought, you know.

But I think that that's what happens with public work, and that's why I think they're so important.

Because it really is something that even though it's public, it's so personal to each viewer, each person, it works.

And I think it's resistance.

People will have to say public works is usually because they encounter it, and they're used to passing the habit of passing a place day after day, after day.

And then suddenly there's something different, you know, and almost immediately, for some weird reason, different means wrong.

It's bad.

They, you know, shocking something.

It's doing something more.

And, but I think over time, people get comfortable with.

As we talk about this building, you'll see that the art and architecture are integrated, and they come together to tell many stories of the culture, the commerce, and the history of Ohio.

And the architect, whose name was Harry hake, who was from Cincinnati, begins the story of Ohio here on the ground floor with a tribute to the Native Americans.

This is an Art Deco interpretation of a design or designs that you might see on Native American blankets, pottery.

And if you look up at the lights, the fixtures, you have the bow and arrows.

We have Native American leaders, Little Turtle to come.

So this is a general scene, a relief scene of two young Native Americans.

Here you have the columns, the the barreled ceiling, the vaulted ceiling mosaic tile.

So he combined the classic architecture with the, the, clean lines, the colors of Art Deco, and they work together just perfectly.

Here in the elevator lobby, the theme shifts.

And this speaks to the natural resources and the economy of Ohio.

Here we have the Roman goddess Ceres.

She was the the Roman and Greek goddess of of grain cereal comes from Ceres.

So this represents agriculture at the opposite end is Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

And so you have the classical balance.

You have agriculture.

And with fire.

Vulcan represents industry.

So those were the two mainstays when this building opened, the two mainstays of the Ohio economy.

This is another great example of Art Deco.

There aren't many tours where people say, check out the elevators, but here, check out the elevators.

Again, you have that combination of metals, streamlined figures in addition to Native American design, Art Deco was heavily influenced by African and Egyptian art, and.

The building opened 81 years ago.

It was known as the Ohio Department's Building.

It was the headquarters for the executive branch of government.

The officials wanted to have a room for public hearings, where the public would pay attention and would say, this is important work.

All of this artwork was here when the doors opened 81 years ago.

It was painted by Rudolf Scheffler, who is from Dresden, Germany.

The style is Rococo, and because of the sweeping nature of the of the murals, he was once quoted as comparing himself to Michelangelo.

No small ego.

The panorama in the rear of the room depicts Marietta, which was the first settlement in the Northwest Territory.

There are 13 figures in the, panorama, each one representing one of the original 13 states.

This is the South hearing room, and the artwork here portrays overall the early commerce in Ohio, beginning at the earliest point where the French and the Native Americans were, were trading furs and animals.

And then it progresses, the story progresses, and you can see the integration of of the waterway and the importance of transportation.

It's done almost in a naive style.

One person compared it to the to the art style of, grandma Moses.

It's counterbalanced with what?

At the time when when, the, the artist H.H.

Wessel from Cincinnati was, painted contemporary Ohio.

What was certainly contemporary then.

The trains have replaced the canals.

Flight is now part of the overall transportation pictures.

And you also see the the industrial centers of the state.

We're now in the North hearing room.

The art was done by a Cincinnati artist, John Homer, and he tells the story and it goes counterclockwise.

It shows early Ohio carving out of the forest a bucolic scene, a the very beginnings of a rustic economy.

And then you go across the window and you land in a more modern time with the turbines and generators, the rock quarry, the construction, the operation factory scene in the energy fields of southeast Ohio.

So, Jimmy, tell me a little bit about the area around the Arts Festival.

And is the downtown riverfront expansion going to affect it?

The festival isn't affected by the riverfront expansion.

We're on the streets above that.

So everything looks normal when you're looking at the arts festival?

We're from Front Street all the way over to Belle on the west side of the river and from town up to main, on both the east and west side.

And, I think the riverfront expansion is going to be wonderful when it's done.

They'll just be so much more greenspace for people to enjoy when they come down to the arts festival, but they shouldn't think that it has anything to do with affecting their their experience at the Arts festival.

We're just excited for it to be finished.

So you do you do think that the arts festival will stay there at the riverfront?

Absolutely.

I think that the greenspace is just going to be wonderful for people.

And we're also looking forward to continuing our expansion west towards Franklinton and to be able to partner and incorporate that wonderful neighborhood.

Thanks, Jamie.

So take a look at this piece on the history of the riverfront expansion.

You know, the fun thing about having our studios down here is that we get to look at this beautiful downtown scenery all year long, see how it changes throughout the year.

We also get to see the river.

And right now the river isn't looking so good.

You see all that construction behind me?

Well, there's a couple of stories I want to tell you about today.

In a few minutes, we're going to talk to Amy Taylor.

She's from the Sarah Greenways project.

She's going to tell you about what all that construction behind me is about, and how this whole area is going to transform.

The first story, though I want to talk to you about, is a 1913 flood from our Columbus Neighborhood series, our downtown of Franklinton documentary.

We want to show you what the flood did and how it actually transformed this whole area and redefined our city.

In 1913, the worst flood in the history of Ohio ravaged Franklinton.

17ft of water roared down the side of the river.

When a flood came, the fire department, came and warned everybody in a bullhorn.

Bullhorn.

But a lot of people didn't believe it, and they refused to be warned as they stood in their homes and and the water got the homes put, the house flooded in the middle street, and the bodies were floating on McKinley, and all our bodies were floating, refused to leave.

Downtown, the river had a much sharper bean in it than it does today, and it took the Broad Street Bridge out to the State Street Bridge, out to the Town Street bridge out.

It took the Mount Street bridge out the Rich Street Bridge, which would that time went rich to rich, which had been condemned.

And it stood.

It was the only surviving bridge of note that stood.

Everything had to be rebuilt.

Every furnace and every building had to be redone because everything was ruined.

There were lots and lots of fires because the gas lines ruptured and caused fires.

There was no firefighting.

Even with all that water, things were burning down.

There's about 93 individuals that lost their lives and 4000 homes that were destroyed in that flood.

Glenn Community House reached out and help rebuild the community and offered a lot of relief through social programs.

It was a disaster.

It was obviously they lost probably 99% of everything they owned.

But it was, still that persevering attitude that, you know, we'll go back and rebuild and, and, start over.

In the years since the flood, the Army Corps of Engineers have been able to make the river safe.

They made reservoirs upstream, and the flood wall keeps the residents and Franklinton completely safe from flooding.

We still have a problem in that.

It's not a very picturesque river.

Well, that's about to change.

This whole concept came from the 2010 Downtown Strategic Plan.

It came from the community.

We're opening the soda mile, a great park, bringing, you know, 90 people downtown.

But people didn't want us to stop there.

The community wanted us to go westward, and westward was the river.

I often joke it is an insult to my favorite food to call it a chocolate brown.

But that was our river and it didn't smell great and it didn't look great then.

We have aquatic life that survives in other segments of the river that couldn't survive in this segment.

And so we looked at it with a great idea from the community.

But was it feasible?

It was not only technologically feasible, but we found that it was actually economically feasible.

Well, we took down the Main Street Dam, which when it was built a century ago, it actually created a sedimentation basin.

And that's really what we've had out there.

We've had a river that's artificially wide.

So when we took out the Main Street dam, it could actually flow like a natural channel, but not a once every greenways project is complete, we'll have 33 acres of new greenspace downtown.

Pretty invaluable.

Well, also in that green space, create 1.5 miles of bike path connections so you'll be able to come all the way down the old Tansey Trail.

And instead of getting on the road a mile heavily crowded with people, lots of families enjoying it, you're going to have a dedicated bike path where you can come down and continue on to the way to your peninsula.

The one thing I do want to mention is it is going to look worse before it looks better.

That's what happens.

When we lowered the river and took out the dam at the end of 2013, we saw what the river looked like we saw within the river.

So we'll be spending 2014 going through and creating that natural channel will be, dredging the river and reusing that fell, reusing that soil to create the 33 acres.

And then in late fall 2014, and certainly in spring 2015, will begin the plantings and the bypass, the ocean 24 month process.

So by the late fall of 2015, we're going to be done.

We are taking care of what Mother Nature would take a generation to do.

So, Jamie, tell me a little bit more about the hands on activities at this year's festival.

Oh, this is a perennial favorite for moms and dads and kids.

We have nearly 20 different hands on activities.

They include, just for example, I make of ceramics.

You can paint your own ceramic piece.

You can work with clay space to throw your own ceramic piece on a potter's wheel.

You can sculpt the glass bead with glass axes and then you can meet ratio, the cosine mascot mascot.

And how is arts festival funded?

The arts festival is completely privately supported.

We raise money through sponsorships and food and artist vendor fees.

And then we turn around.

If we make a profit, which isn't always, we turn around and reinvest that into the community and projects like this town.

And what is this town?

Junior achievements.

This town is a program where they teach middle schoolers how to, basically balance checkbooks and managing the everyday world of a community.

So they, manage banks and they come into this place for one day and, and get to experience what it's like to be a real world adult.

And hopefully they're not terrified by that.

Thanks, Jamie.

And we have a segment on this town.

Take a look.

I am pleased to announce that David Town is officially open for business.

Here in the Short North.

So we're between High and Summit, second Avenue and the old Second Avenue Elementary School.

This town is a place where fifth graders run the world today.

They're the grown ups, and they get to make all the decisions about their business and their personal money.

They have CEOs, CFOs, editors at the newspaper, deejays at the radio station, and they get to make all the decisions.

So we just see how it works out at the.

We've got 16 businesses that reflect the community.

We're very generous sponsors who build out the shops for us to provide the materials and the kids use by each day.

So the Greater Columbus Arts Council is just one of 16 shops in in Biz Town.

And, this is a way for us to invest the proceeds from the Columbus Arts Festival back into the community.

And so the money that we raise to the arts festival is bringing experiences like Jamestown to life.

So the Greater Commons Arts Council shop is designed to help kids learn about art in the community, art and commerce, and also artists and arts organizations.

As a really contributing member of the society and how important those are to our community.

It's also about teaching kids the power of individual and corporate contributions to the arts.

Remember, you have to monitor them throughout the day because if you're not selling everything you might need to, you might need to change your prices.

And we're almost there.

As you remember, this is our loan amount that we have to pay back.

This is a program where they've been working at school for about a month before they ever come.

And part of the prep work, because they've written a check to open a savings account.

So before they come here, they've done the savings part of the day today is the spending part today, where they have to go out and write checks that use a debit card and use cash to buy some of the products in the town.

We teach financial literacy and career readiness and entrepreneurship, so we hope that we light the bulb over their head and tells us that they can do it, and they can make a difference, so they get to choose what they want to be.

Well.

I know at the end, would you.

Like to have some pictures from the Columbus Art Council.

To offer and one of the newspapers.

Or do we have to talk to this?

Yeah.

This town is, such a great concept.

It's not just about financial education for for young people, which is so great, which I wish I had when I was in fifth grade.

But it's also about how, a community works and how people work together.

And I think those are really vitally important messages.

So I love that we can help show them that work can be fun.

And certainly the arts can do that.

Thanks again for being here, Jamie.

Once again, give us the details of this year's Columbus Arts Festival.

Columbus Arts Festival 20th June 12th through the 14th on the downtown riverfront.

Over 300 artists, lots of local artists, six performance stages, hands on activities for families and so much more.

And where can people find parking?

They can find parking on the east or the west side of the river.

There's the cosine lots.

There's the Commons garage.

And of course, they can always bike or take the code bus.

And where can they follow or find information for social media Columbus.

Arts festival.org or on Twitter at C bus Arts Fest, or of course we're on Facebook as well.

Thanks again.

Jamie.

And like Jamie said.

For more details, check out Columbus Arts festival.org.

We appreciate everyone who watches and supports Broughton High, so tune in at our regular time.

Wednesdays at 730, and please consider a pledge of financial support.