Find Your Inner Artist at the Sawdust Arts and Crafts Festival

What has your inner artist always dreamt of learning?  Glass blowing?  Stamp carving?  Mayan mosaic masks?  Maybe you want to be an expert in iPhone photography or explore a long-held passion for Expressionist painting.  However your heart desires to express itself, you’ll find an avenue at the Sawdust Arts and Crafts Festival in Laguna Beach.  The incredibly popular festival, celebrating its 50th year, runs daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. until August 28.
Designed to both entertain and educate, the Sawdust Art Festival draws more than 200,000 visitors worldwide each year.  Visitors are invited to shop along sawdust-covered paths through a handcrafted village of fine arts and superb craftsmanship, all from Long Beach artists.  All forms of fine arts and crafts are featured, including: ceramics, clothing and textiles, glass, jewelry, mixed media, painting, photography, print making, sculpture and woodwork.
In addition to artist booths, festival-goers can enjoy art demonstration booths such as glassblowing, complimentary hands-on art workshops, a children’s art booth, a ceramic center, as well as four outdoor cafes, a saloon, live musical entertainment and more.
So how did the Sawdust Festival come about?  Laguna Beach artists felt it was time – time for something new, fresh, exciting, something alive.  In 1965, a small group of artists decided to start a new summer art festival, setting up shop in a vacant lot across the street from the present Laguna Beach library.  A couple years later, the festival was moved to a spacious dirt lot on the North Coast Highway.  A number of disenfranchised artists and craftsmen rallied together and the festival grew in popularity.  Shortly after opening, sawdust was spread to keep the dust down, and local media dubbed the show the Sawdust Festival.  To this day, the debate continues over whether those first two years in town were the beginning years of the Sawdust or just precursors.  Today, the Sawdust has expanded from its humble beginnings to a nine-week festival set in Laguna Canyon on a cool three-acre, eucalyptus grove, complete with waterfalls.
The Sawdust Art Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public and promoting the art created in Laguna Beach.  Since its inception, the nonprofit Sawdust Art Festival organization has celebrated and supported the work of local artists.  For more information, please visit www.sawdustartfestival.org.  

Comments