The roster of events held from Northern Kentucky to Butler County includes four local venues in Hamilton, Fairfield, West Chester Twp. and Oxford. All will host shows and/or hands-on activities involving music, storytelling, dance, theater, painting and more.
The area events run as follows:
Fitton Center for Creative Arts
101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton. All events on Saturday.
10 to 11:15 a.m. — Gentle Hatha Yoga
10 a.m. to noon — Pete's Drum Circle
10 a.m. to noon — Strummin' with Sams, basic guitar instruction
10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. — Theater Fun: warm up with acting games and practicing a scene.
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Create characters and comics with artist Craig Boldman.
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. — So You Think You Can Dance? Family dance time
Noon to 3 p.m. — Henna tattoos with safe and painless art. Also sample Indian cuisine.
12:30 to 2:30 p.m. — Kids sing along with Mr. Larry.
12:45 to 1:45 p.m. — Active yoga to energize and strengthen.
2 to 3 p.m. — Shimmy: Experience belly dancing.
Fairfield Community Arts Center
411 Wessel Drive, Fairfield. All events on Saturday.
1 p.m. — Nrity/Arpana School of Performing Arts presents Indian history and culture.
2 p.m. — Familiar Tunes with a Twist, Music from the 20s, 30s and 40s.
3 p.m. — Our Roots Are Showing, Interactive performance for children in kindergarten through sixth grade demonstrating a variety of instruments and American Roots music.
4 p.m. — Wild Carrot & the Roots band, Cincinnati-based quartet specializing in folk music, plus swing and blues.
Lakota Freshman Campus
5050 Tylersville Road, West Chester Twp. All events on Saturday.
Noon-12:30 p.m. —Children's Performing Arts of Lakota will be performing skits depicting life during previous centuries with magical characters.
12:30-2:30 p.m. — Art from West Chester will provide interactive art projects that allow participants to become and old world masterpiece and also feature art masters create magical masterpieces.
1:15 p.m. — The West Chester Symphony Orchestra plays music from "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," "Harry Potter," and Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
2:15 p.m. — The West Chester Silver Strings children's orchestra will play the classics of Bach and Beethoven. Members of the WCSO will sit in to help fill out the Silver Strings and mentor some of the players.
Miami University Voice of America Learning Center
7847 Voice of America Park Drive, West Chester Twp.
1 to 3 p.m. Saturday — Pirate Island Madness by Time Machine Productions, play geared toward children in kindergarten to sixth grade.
2 to 4 p.m. Sunday — Dueling pianos by Miami alumni Rod Nimtz and Jeff Smith.
Oxford Community Arts Center
10 S. College Age., Oxford
3 to 5 p.m. Saturday — Winter Children's Art Festival, featuring puppetry, music, dance and storytelling.
3 p.m. Sunday — Jazz singer Lisa Biales in concert.
This is the 24th year for the sampler weekend, which marks the kickoff of the Fine Arts Fund’s annual fund-raising campaign. Last year, the campaign raised $11 million from 38,500 contributors. Most contributions are taken through workplace campaigns, said Pam McFarland, the FAF’s director of marketing and communications. Local beneficiaries of the FAF include the Middletown Symphony Orchestra, the Fitton Center and the Mason Community Players.
Last year the Fairfield CAC hosted Indian classical dance, belly dance troupe Anaya Gypsy and Blue Ash Shaolin-Do martial artists.
“The beauty of it is that it’s a sampler format,” said Heidi Schiller, manager at the Fairfield Community Arts Center, “so patrons who may or may not have been to the arts center are drawn.”
Schiller estimated last year’s events drew more than 500 people to the FCAC.
Jodi Fritsch, the Fitton Center’s director of public relations, said last year the Fitton’s sampler drew about 250 people throughout the day. Changes this year include extending the day an hour, plus free food and coffee, compliments of Richard’s Pizza and Miami University Hamilton’s Jitters Express.
For a downloadable brochure of events, visit www.fineartsfund.org.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.
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