Art all over The 7th Annual Pawtucket Art Festival takes it to the streets [and parks and piers] BY BILL RODRIGUEZ

Once again giving Providence ambitious late-summer entertainment competition, the seventh annual Pawtucket Arts Festival is presenting a wide spectrum of performances across the city’s 307-acre Downtown Arts and Entertainment District from September 9 to 25.

Events range from the Rhode Island Philharmonic Pops Orchestra to folk and world music, from a talk by designer Malcolm Greer to Taiwanese dragon boat races. The 16-day program is presenting 39 performances and events, some of which would be taking place anyway — such as at Stone Soup coffeehouse and the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre — but most of which were planned for the occasion.

"The festival is completely artist-driven," said Herbert Weiss, project manager for development projects in the city’s planning department. He has helped organize the event from the beginning. "This isn’t just slammed together by city officials. We really worked toward having a public/private partnership with organizations, local businesses, and the artists’ community."

The festival has grown considerably from its debut in the summer of 1999, when it was a much smaller version of Providence’s now-defunct Convergence arts festival. Its budget has increased from $20,000 to $103,000. The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council supplied six months of staff time to make the first event happen. Early on, the Pawtucket Teachers Alliance paid for two sculptures that have become fixtures in the city, and the Rhode Island Teachers Alliance has contributed $15,000 to sponsor the pops concert for the third consecutive year.

Local businesses have been generous — this year 155 of them contributed more than $76,000, and 83 restaurants and stores have provided everything from food to decorations for the gala. The Salvation Army is providing a truck to distribute water and the YMCA is donating use of a shuttle bus.

For last year’s festival, Diane Agostini was assigned by the Department of Planning and Redevelopment to work full-time as program coordinator. That first event was "a learning experience" that taught her to start early, so she began preparing in February.

"Last year there were not enough kids’ events," she said. "In order to bring out families, you need to have more things for the kids to do — they’re not going to sit and listen to folk music. So we’re trying to reach out and have more family-oriented events.

"We’re having a Slater Mill Family Fun Fest [with] a lot of hands-on activities for kids," Agostini said. "This year we’re going to have sand castles — by Sandtasia, they do the sand sculpting in Newport — along with the Providence Circus School and [the] Slippery Sneakers zydeco band. That should be a good day."

There won’t be a rubber ducky race this year, but plenty of other activities are on the program. Events are free, unless otherwise noted. A complete schedule with times for specific activities is available at www.pawtucketartsfestival.org.

Here are some highlights:

September 9 — Opening Gala at the Pawtucket Armory from 6 to 9 pm. The $5 admission includes a buffet from more than 80 local restaurants, and music by Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha Chas and the Firefighters Pipes & Drums. There will also be a Family Fun Nightm from 6:30 to 9 pm at the Pawtucket YMCA, which will include rock climbing, face painting, and arts and crafts.

September 9-24 — Stone Soup will present the following: Atwater-Donnelly, Kathy Danielson, Antje Duvekot, and J.P. Jones on September 9; Bill Harley, Joyce Katzberg, Kate Katzberg, Si Kahn, and Lindsay Adler on September 10; Trouz Bras on September 17; and Catie Curtis and Ingrid Michelson on September 24. Performances are at 8 pm at 210 Main Street and tickets are $12, except for the final show, which is $16.

September 10 — Dragon Boat Race & Taiwan Day Festival at the School Street Pier from 8 am to 5 pm. Quarter-mile races for cash prizes will be conducted all day, drawing teams from throughout the region. Taiwan Day activities will include a lion dance, a puppet show, Chinese folk dance, and Taiwan’s Ten Drum Art Percussion.

September 11 — The Slater Mill Family Fun Fest will take place from noon to 5 pm on the grounds of the site. Activities will include performances by All Children’s Theatre at 12:30 pm; the zydeco band Slippery Sneakers from 1:30-4:30 pm; and sand sculpting by Sandtasia and workshops by the Providence Circus School all afternoon.

Pawtucket Exposed: Creative Spaces from the Inside Out, from 10 am to 4 pm, is a self-guided walk through downtown art studios, galleries and historic buildings. The Fusionworks dance company will perform at 4 pm at the Armory.

Mixed Magic Theatre will present From the Bard to the Bounce: A Hip Hop and Shakespeare Experience at 3 pm at 230 Main Street.

September 11, 12, 15, 16, 19, and 23 — The Mirror Image Film Festival will be held at the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center, with programs of short films at 6:30 pm. The $10 admission includes snacks, drinks, and a festival T-shirt.

September 11 — A Stone Soup Folk Festival will take place in Slater Memorial Park. The fline-up: Caria Ulbrich at 1 pm; Dan Pelletier at 2 pm; Aztec Two-Step at 3 pm; and Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams at 4 pm.

September 14 — An Evening with Malcolm Greer, at which the internationally recognized designer will speak on "The Design Process" at 7 pm at the Visitors Center.

September 17-18 — Arts Fest 2005 will take place from 10 am to 5 pm at Slater Memorial Park, with arts and crafts booths and demonstrations of furniture-making and chainsaw sculpture.

September 18 — A World Music Fest will take place in Slater Memorial Park. Performing will be: Jason Roseman on Trinidad steel drum at noon; Mibbet Threats and the RI All-Star Jazz and Blues Band at 1 pm; the Native American dance troupe Nettukkusq at 2 pm; the reggae group Mystic Jammers at 3 pm; the West African band Ashanti Spirit at 4 pm; and Afro-Cuban trumpet player Carlos deLeon at 5 pm.

September 24 — The Rhode Island Philharmonic Pops will perform a program including works by Sousa, Gershwin, and Tchaikovsky at Slater Park at 5:30 pm.