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Children’s Art Festival in July this year

The Whistler Children’s Art Festival, a 23-year-old event traditionally held in late May, is moving to July this year.

The long-time Whistler Arts Council-run event will take place July 9-10 outdoors in Creekside, with art workshops conducted in a series of tents.

Over the years the festival has offered workshops in a variety of visual media and performance art disciplines including photography, kite-making, painting, carving, percussion, mask-making, scratch art, magic, jewelry-making, T-shirt painting and drawing, taught by prolific artists from throughout the Sea to Sky corridor.

Arts Council executive director Doti Niedermayer said the move was inspired by declining festival attendance and scheduling difficulties due to increasing levels of kids’ activities near the end of the school year.

Niedermayer also noted the move to a mid-summer date and the self-contained Creekside venue will allow for more of a "festival atmosphere" with street performers and other musical entertainment not possible in the school gym/community centre venues the festival has utilized in the past.

Niedermayer ensured that despite falling during a busier tourist season the festival intends to continue to focus on local kids.

"We’re going to try it and see how it goes," she said.

The date change aligns the Children’s Art Festival with the Whistler Arts & Music Festival. The Tourism Whistler-sponsored festival coming up on its second year encompasses film, art and music events, including the Arts Council’s summer ArtWalk, which takes place July 1-31 with an opening night slated for July 2.

ARTrageous returns

The Arts Council also confirmed the return of ARTrageous this summer.

The visual arts and music extravaganza has been occurring in various years since the early 1990s and was last held in the summer of 2003.

ARTrageous 2005 will take place on July 8. The venue is unconfirmed at this time.