For the seventh year, the Three Rivers Artist Guild is presenting an arts, culture and heritage event known as the Oregon City Festival of the Arts (OCFOTA). It will take place on August 12 and 13, 2023.
The event is now considered the premier art event in Oregon City. The Festival will be held at the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive & Visitor Information Center located at 1726 Washington Street, Oregon City, OR 97045.
The deadline for applications has been extended to April 8th, 2023.The festival is now open to all local artists.
The Spring Fling is back for a third year on May 6 and May 7 at the Pioneer Community Center in Oregon City.
Times for the events will be: Saturday, May 6, from 10 am till 4 pm and Sunday, May 7, from 10 am till 4 pm. Set up will be on Friday, May 5 from 3 pm till 7 pm.
By Tamara Scott and Jeanne Kelley-Brown, Open Studios Coordinators
At our member meetings on November 14 (2022) and January 9th, the idea of having a TRAG-run Open Studios was proposed by some members. Jeanne Kelley-Brown and Tamara Scott are spearheading the beginnings of this project and want to assess member interest as well as member participation—we can’t do this alone!
In case you are not familiar with the Open Studios concept, here is a little explanation. Local artists open their home studio spaces for participants to come visit, view and purchase their art. If participating artists have room, they may also host 1-3 other artists who can set up in the house, the garage, or on the driveway, depending on what space is available. Portland Open Studios is HUGE, runs over two weekends, and had over 115 artists participate in 2022.
Volunteers Needed for Oregon City Festival of the Arts 2023
It’s that time again! Time to start forming committees for our big premier arts festival. The 2022 Festival was an enormous success, but it was coordinated by a handful of members-mostly board members. We need an army of volunteers for the 2023 event to make it even more successful. When volunteering for a position, you will be assisted by the previous year’s lead and not left on your own to “figure it out”. This is a professionally run event and we want everyone to be successful and that means teamwork!
There will be a meeting the end of January or beginning of February to begin planning. Below are some suggestions for volunteering.
The art show only had 28 artist this year with space for 10 more. Let’s hope we can fill it in 2023. This was our 15th annual event-yes 15! Our guild is going to be 16 in 2023! The Holiday Show is only open to members of the guild. The Oregon City News had a wonderful article with one of our artists on the front page! We shared advertising with several other events in the community along with a ½ page ad in the OC News. Over the years, the guild has donated over $7,000 to the Pioneer Community Center’s Meals on Wheels program!
Major kudos to Melody Bush for Facebook advertising, Ingrid Aubry for our postcards and posters – each year they just get better, Kerry Edwards, volunteer coordinator and my right-hand, Lynne Collum for name tags and booth signs and Yelena Shabrova who managed all the computer magic! Couldn’t have done this without good teamwork. Thank you for being so resourceful and fun to work with!
By Kerry Edwards, Holiday Show Volunteer Coordinator
We are currently recruiting volunteers for the Holiday Show that will be held on December 3rd and 4th. This is a wonderful, very successful show and just a bit of volunteering helps it run smoothly. Consider volunteering for a couple of hours on one of the days below.
The job is easy, the atmosphere is fun and you can shop before or after your shift!!
Below are the days and times needed – again – just two hours of your time would help!
FRIDAY, Dec. 2 – 3:00 – 7:00 (helping artists set up) SATURDAY, Dec. 3 – 9:00 – 4:00 (assisting during the show – handing out snacks, booth relief) SUNDAY, Dec. 4 – 10:00 – 4:00 (assisting during the show – snacks, booth relief) SUNDAY, Dec. 4 – 4:00 – 6:00 (assisting artists with booth breakdown)
Fill the form below to sign up or directly contact Kerry Edwards at kerryducks56@gmail.com and help show your support of the HOLIDAY SHOW!!
If you are willing to help, PLEASE fill the form and choose your hours! You can change them later if you need. This really helps to coordinate volunteer efforts and make sure help is distributed evenly through the setup, duration of the show, and takedown. Thank you!
The Holiday Show will be taking place on the weekend of December 3 and 4, 2022.
Times for the events will be: Saturday from 9 am till 4 pm and Sunday from 10 am till 4 pm.
Set up will be on Friday, December 2 from 3 pm till 7 pm. Please do not show up any earlier unless you are assisting with set up.
This show is for TRAG membership that have been juried into a TRAG event or the previous TRAG gallery.
As of October 17th, 2022, there are only 6 spaces still available. All spaces are 8 feet wide by 6 feet deep at $60. 33 spaces have been already taken.
If you are a returning artist from the 2021 show and would like to request the same location, please let us know.
You must have your own display set-up. There are several tables available at the facility: 3 tables measuring 30” by 96” and 9 tables measuring 30” by 72”. Please send in your request to Lynda.
This show will be first come with applications for participation. If we are unable to fill the event during this first Call to Artists, we’ll send out a second call the beginning of November.
Please include at least 2 photos of your work for advertising purposes. We’ll have a postcard created to post on Facebook and email to clientele.
You will receive notification of acceptance by the end of October along with further instructions and information on set up.
If you have any further questions or comments, contact Lynda Orzen at orzep@comcast.net.
Wow, just wow! What an amazing event this year! We had well over 3,000 visitors during the weekend. The parking lot was always full all weekend! Saturday morning we saw a constant stream of people entering the festival! Our artists gave the festival an average of 8.8 appreciation rating. Many said this festival had the best sales they’ve seen in years!
I’ll let them speak for themselves:
Well done everyone!! A great show, well organized and lots of visitors. This show continues to be a delight. We have enjoyed this event every year. Our thanks to you all for all your hard work and friendly faces
This was an amazing event and the anticipation for next year is already an exciting seed in my mind. Kudos to all of you wonderful folks and all your hard work.
Wow! I so appreciate the work of the OC Festival of the Arts Committee! You are super organized, your volunteers are the greatest, and your publicity is amazing!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thanks so much for the awesome show!!!! I had the best sales I’ve ever had at the event. So nice to see you and everybody again. I had a lot of my clients come and a lot of annual regulars who stopped in to buy bling.
You, the committee and all the volunteers were so very terrific! This is why I love this event. I hope you all get to take a well-deserved break.
Much Appreciation ~
Just a small example of the feedback from our artists. Truly heartwarming!
As the event coordinator, I would like to give kudos to our committee members who put in hours of planning to make this happen! Several members like Melody Bush were behind the scenes posting on Social Media daily. Yelena Shabrova kept all the applications and communications current. Ingrid Aubry used her magic creating our postcards, posters, banners, programs, and billboards for the event. Nancy Graham kept the financial information current along with those boring insurance details! Susan Woodworth signed up the music and food vendors, while being a vendor in the event and a television personality for our KATU commercial. Cathy Rowe manned the Silent Auction again this year and did her magic with the online bidding and gathering the auction items. Thank you to Tima Carlson and Soul Flags for hosting the Children’s Art activities. Lynne Collum created the artist booth signs and badges this year. Tamara Scott was the keeper of the key for the Storage Unit and always ready to help move supplies. Last but one of the most important committee chairs was Kerry Edwards who set up the volunteers for the festival. Kerry was invaluable and worked with me coordinating this event. She went above and beyond setting the volunteer schedules, she was my right hand in organizing the event! She always had a smile on her face even when trying to go in 2 directions at the same time!
Special thanks to our sponsors this year, World Heart, Citizens Bank and Double J Construction. If you have a chance to visit our sponsors, please thank them for their support.
Can’t forget to thank our Oregon City Tourism Department and Daniel Gehring for his support and getting us on KATU television for our interviews. The interview went out to the wider Portland community, and I believe increased our visitor count during the weekend.
Now the process begins for planning our 2023 Premier Art Event!
Lynda Orzen OCFOTA Coordinator
Updated September 1st, 2022: Oregon City Festival of the Arts got Silver in the Best Festival in Oregon City from Readers Choice Awards through the Pamplin press!
