WABASH – The annual Charley Creek Arts Fest returns for a six-day run starting June 26 with three nights of award-winning films at the Eagles Theater in downtown Wabash. The 2012 Arts Fest, which is coordinated by the Charley Creek Foundation, is filled with music, art and drama events at several locations around Wabash. including the Honeywell Center where the band Tuxedo Junction plays on the plaza preceding Thursday night’s Heartland films at the Eagles. Artist Terry Armstrong wil lead a workshop in watercolor techniques during the day on Thursday. Also on Thursday, Charles Shepherd III, executive director of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, will offer a free presentation, “Between the Wars: The Emergence of a Distinctly American Voice”. The festival’s weekend schedule begins with the popular downtown gallery walk at 5 p.m. June 29. Art galleries will open their doors for the three-hour event which includes entertainment on the sidewalks and in Miami Street near the Charley Creek Inn. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, participants in the WaBass workshop for double bass players held here each summer will perform at the Ford Theater. A reception for the musicians follows in the Big Four Ballroom at Charley Creek Inn. A day-long fine arts show and sale at the Charley Creek Gardens opens at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Artists will display their works in the central part of the garden, and musicians will perform. A wine tasting in the Garden House runs from 1 to 4 p.m. Visitors will have an opportunity to design their own glass paperweights, and All Occasions and Twenty will operate food booths. “Tea and a Story”, a feature new to the Arts Fest this year, is at 2 p.m. Sunday in the ballroom at Charley Creek Inn. Lou Ann Homan, a professional storyteller, will relate the history of the hotel, which was built in 1920 and recently renovated. Those in the audience will enjoy an afternoon tea while they here tales of the old hotel. The festival concludes Sunday evening with a performance by Time for Three in the Ford Theater at 6 p.m. Time for Three is the self-described “classically trained garage band” featuring Zach De Pue, concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Ranaan Meyer, director of the WaBass Workshop, and Nick Kendall, a member of the Dryden String Quartet. Information about tickets for various Art Fest events can be obtained by www.charleycreekartsfest.org
