So, this past weekend, I attended (for the first time) the annual RedEye arts festival in Fort Lauderdale. The festival, which celebrated its 10th year, is presented by ArtServe, a non-profit organization that empowers local artists and cultural entities to achieve their vision, improve the cultural fabric of the community and discover innovations in the arts by providing ongoing programs, facilities and services.
ArtServe is now centrally located in Fort Lauderdale, sharing its 25,000 sq. ft. venue with a Broward County branch library. This multi-purpose facility provides low-cost space where artists, non-profits and the public can hold classes, workshops, performances, meetings, events, and conduct business.
This year’s theme for RedEye was ‘Reality Reimagined’ and the four hour event (6-10pm) was packed with live music, live performance art, films, food, fun and more. I was very honored that two of my short documentary films were screened at this unique festival – GRAFSTRACT: The Bronx Street Art Renaissance which won the “Best Street Art Film” award at the 2015 New Urbanism Film Festival in Los Angeles, and Wall 2 Wall Women, which I shot right here in Miami and features several of South Florida’s top street artists.
I brought the family with me to RedEye: Reality Reimagined and we were not disappointed (my teenage daughter even snuck up to the spoken word stage to read one of her poems!). We will be back at this dynamic multi-media festival next year for sure. And as I am wont to do, I also brought along my Lumix GH4 and snapped a few pictures (that pretty much speak for themselves) – enjoy and see you next year…
Outside of ArtServe, young artists got familiar with spray paint cans…
Once inside, two eye-popping pieces by South Florida-based artist Brian Poli-Dixon
Art everywhere…
Belly dancer captivating the crowd…
Body painting and live painting were also going on inside…
Clay & mixed media piece by Venezuelan artist Tomas E. Rojas
The Killer Robots, a costume band from Orlando, made an appearance…
After the screening of Wall 2 Wall Women, I was joined by two of the film’s “stars”, Diana Contreras and Alexandra Le Boom aka Miss Lushy
If you didn’t have the big bucks for the original art, there were plenty of art prints (and t-shirts) for sale…
Video Game Lounge? Yup.
Oh, and there was this guy here…
Art everywhere REDUX
The Spoken Word Salon was humming all night and there was also plenty of live music in the UnPlugged Acoustic Stage as well as a performance by Alexander Star and The Golden People on the main stage. Overall, a night to remember – see you next year!
Painting at top, “Wildest Dreams” by Julia Gaffney