The Central Coalition of Arts Leaders (C3OAL) presents the Spark the Arts Festival, with regional events spanning April to June. The Festival launches with a free kickoff party, open to the public, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 26, at the SLO Public Market. There will be booths from participating arts groups, prizes, limited discounts to upcoming performance events, and live music by 41k with Inga Swearingen, including Damon Castillo, Dave Becker, Dylan Johnson, Kristian Ducharme, and Daryl Van Druff. The Spark the Arts Festival is made possible by visionary sponsorship by the Community Foundation of San Luis Obispo County, supporting sponsorship from the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center, and media sponsorships from Matchfire, New Times, and KCBX Public Radio.
The Spark the Arts Festival is intended to build audience confidence and fill empty seats, to ultimately reinvigorate local arts groups as they return to in-person events. With national performing arts audiences anticipated between 59-70% of the previous four year high (SMU Data Arts), the Central Coast Coalition of Arts Leaders identified an urgent regional need to facilitate audience return to theaters, in order to mitigate revenue losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coalition’s founding co-chair Anna James Miller recently shared “this festival takes place at a critical juncture in this return-to-stage season for our local performing groups, as we each try to end the fiscal year in a strong cash position and launch next season. Last year’s shuttered events impacted each group in some way, whether through budget cuts, reduced staffing, inability to hold annual fundraisers, and of course empty stages across the county.
Participating organizations include: Arts Obispo, Ballet Theatre SLO, Cal Poly Arts, Cal Poly Performing Arts Department, Cambria Center for the Arts, Canzona Women’s Ensemble, Central Coast Gilbert & Sullivan, Clark Center for the Performing Arts, Cuesta College Performing Arts Programs, Cuesta Concord Chorus, Festival Mozaic, Harold J. Miossi Cultural and Performing Arts Center (CPAC) at Cuesta College, KCBX Public Radio, Movement Arts Collective, Opera San Luis Obispo, Orchestra Novo, Paso Robles Youth