If you missed the Dooryard Arts Festival, held this past August, you missed the physical manifestation of a burgeoning arts and culture movement in the region. Over 1,000 participants took part in four days of walk-through art exhibits, musical performances, original theatrical productions, and culinary showcases in downtown Woodstock, New Brunswick.

Universally hailed as a major success, planning is already underway for the second annual Dooryard Festival, to be held August 11-14, 2010. Members of the driving force behind Dooryard, Woodstock-based nonprofit River Valley Arts Alliance (RiVA), are not satisfied merely kicking back to enjoy the success of their recent endeavors. Among the many irons the organization still has in the fire are the renovation of a vacant Victorian home in downtown Woodstock into an artist-run centre, a series of winter art workshops, and a blow-out Halloween bash that will double as RiVA's first birthday party.

Despite their success locally, RiVA has their eye fixed further afield. "We've been very successful in building a network of interested individuals in Woodstock," says RiVA vice-president Laurel Green, "but we want to be very careful, if we are promoting ourselves as an organization for the River Valley, not to limit our efforts to just one town."

In an attempt to broaden their scope, the Alliance has partnered with the Andrew & Laura McCain Art Gallery in Florenceville-Bristol to host "Dooryard in Review," a retrospective look at this summer's festival. The month-long exhibit will feature artwork from festival participants, sets and props from "The Trials of Benny Swim," an original musical which had its debut during Dooryard, and the results of several collaborative community art projects organized during the course of the festival.

 

The exhibition will kick off with an opening reception on Thursday, October 8th between 7 and 9 PM at the McCain Gallery, 8 McCain Street in Florenceville-Bristol.

October also marks the launch of RiVA's membership campaign, and the event at the McCain Gallery will double as a chance for interested individuals in the northern Carleton and Victoria County area to learn more about the organization and the potential benefits of membership. Says Green, "Up until this point we've operated without a formal membership program, but the time has come to put a system in place that will allow us to better track and communicate with local artists and art lovers, and to connect them to one another." Green lists affordability and value as chief concerns during the process of drafting the program. "A basic membership will cost $10 for adults and $5 for students," she says. "It will be up for renewal once a year -- every October."

Membership dues will go toward supporting the many projects that RiVA is involved with. Green hopes that the event at the McCain Gallery will be the beginning of a heightened presence for the group in the area. "It will be great to meet those people from Florenceville, Bath, Centreville and beyond who may be interested in helping us to advance the arts in the region," she says. "In order for us to foster a thriving artistic community we'll need help and input from across the Valley."