7th Annual Sacramento Arts Festival Oct. 1-3 Is the Biggest and Best Ever, Featuring More Than 225 Premier Artists.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Special Schools Gallery to Spotlight Works from Sacramento Area Schools Art Competition; Percentage of Proceeds to Benefit Crocker Art Museum's Partnership for Arts Education Programs for Children

The seventh annual Sacramento Arts Festival Oct. 1-3, 2004, at the Sacramento Convention Center features more than 225 of America's best contemporary craftspeople and fine artists offering more than 15,000 original works.

Each exhibitor was selected through a jury system for the originality and quality of his or her work. The event has become not only the premier art show in Sacramento, but is also developing into one of the top art festivals in the country. Many of the artists who exhibit at such renowned events as the Sausalito Art Festival, the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami and the Ann Arbor Art Fairs also exhibit at the Sacramento Arts Festival.

Festival visitors have the rare opportunity to actually meet and talk with these talented artists and craftspeople who are coming to Sacramento from across the West. Several exhibitors will also be demonstrating how they make their unique items.

Extraordinary Art

Strolling through the festival, attendees will see a vast selection of extraordinary work. For example, 25 ceramic artists will be exhibiting their stoneware, porcelain and raku works, offering clay creations ranging from functional hand-thrown plates, cups, tea sets and vases, to whimsical sculptures and hand-carved bas-relief clay paintings.

Or consider wood. Twenty woodworkers, each specializing in the carving, turning or laminating of a variety of domestic or exotic woods are offering such works as candlesticks, salad bowls, jewelry boxes, toy trains, lamps, chairs and chests of drawers.

In fine art, 42 painters, working in watercolors, oils, pastels, and acrylics, will be displaying traditional and modern, landscape and still life, animal and floral, portrait and abstract, whimsical and surrealistic, originals and limited-edition prints. And 40 jewelers, working with gold and silver, enamel and fabric, precious and semi-precious gemstones, will be offering rings and necklaces, earrings and pendants, bracelets and brooches, constructed or cast, forged or fused, simple or elaborate.

Attendees can also shop from a wonderful selection of handmade wearables and accessories, or a variety of functional and decorative glass. In fact, every category of fine and contemporary art, including drawings, printmaking, photography, decorative fiber, leather, metal, stone, and two- and three-dimensional mixed media, is thoroughly represented by a variety of exhibitors. Shoppers will find spectacular works of art and craft in all price ranges for themselves, their homes, and as one-of-a-kind Christmas gifts.

Highlighted Artists

There's also a father-and-son team at this year's Festival, both sculptors. Phillip Glashoff and his son, Chad, of Suisun Valley, are among 12 sculptors that will be exhibiting works ranging from bronzes that fit on the mantle to giant welded assemblages suitable for the yard.

Phillip is a well-known contemporary metal sculptor who creates whimsical and imaginative art from discarded scrap metal, using ordinary objects such as rusty horseshoes, car mufflers, frying pans, wrenches and saw blades. His 25 years' experience in his art form grew out of necessity as a young man growing up on a working farm more than two decades ago, where he taught himself how to weld. He saw art in the discarded metal around the family ranch. Combining his welding with a sharp wit and an eye for the whimsical, Phillip creates his sculptures at the Glashoff Sculpture Ranch in Suisun. He uses a welder's torch to form scraps of rusted and peeling into large sculptures. He says of his work: "My art is created from found materials that I have collected from junk yards in the area. I like to think of it as a form of recycling. My goal is to show happiness and a sense of freedom through my art."

His son, Chad, will also be exhibiting his stainless steel abstract sculptures. Chad, a student at the California Academy of the Arts in Oakland, said he wants to develop "the Picasso style in sculpting, free-flowing and fresh. It looks like the metal isn't even touched; where it's just a natural form." Chad, an award-winning sculptor himself, sold his first piece at age 12. The Glashoffs just opened a gallery in Suisun Valley.

Or consider Barry Kite's Aberrant Art colorful photo collages (www.aberrantart.com). After receiving his B.F.A. in film from UCLA, Chicago-born Barry Kite spent the next five years traveling overseas. Returning to the San Francisco Bay area, he wrote and performed his own style of surreal poetry in local coffee houses. Renewing his interest in collage, he combined photographic and hand-coloring techniques to create the foundation of his current work. The exclusive use and alteration of found imagery is a natural extension of found poetry and the basis for what he considers his visual poems. Kite's style of social and political parody via the "re-positioning" of art historical and contemporary media imagery has won him several art competition awards and placed his work in numerous private and corporate collections.

Schools Gallery to Spotlight Students' Art

Returning to the festival this year is the Schools Gallery, which spotlights art works from the Sacramento Area Schools Art Competition. Every elementary, middle, and high school participating will display students' entries in six 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional categories. Overall winners will receive cash and other prizes.

Entertainment and Food

In addition to all the visual art, the festival will feature continuous live Main Stage entertainment, including Sacramento's own Tony Kalhagen (world music), the Kurt Ribak Trio from Berkeley (jazz) plus a special guest, The GG Amos Band (blues quintet), and Dirk K (jazz guitarist).

And hungry festival-goers can dine on Restaurant Row, featuring food from great area establishments, including Greek, Indian, Chinese and Mexican restaurants.

Show Hours and Tickets

The festival will be held in Halls A and B of the Sacramento Convention Center (the entrance is at 14th and J Streets). Show hours are noon to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3.

Tickets at the door are $7.50 adults; $6.50 seniors; free for children under 12. A percentage of the proceeds benefits the Crocker Art Museum's Partnership for Arts Education programs for children, including Art Ark, Art Blast and Art Access.

There is a special $5 ticket price for groups of 20 or more (you do not have to attend as a group). For advance group tickets, phone [phone] or e-mail [e-mail]. Discount coupons are available at participating Longs Drugs.

For more information, visit www.americanartfestivals.com or call 775-832-6603.