A nonprofit that created and has hosted an Orono arts festival since 2011 will disband.
After Stillwater Community Arts announced last month it wouldn’t be hosting Artsapalooza, the group’s vice president, Connie Carter, said this week the organization is preparing to dissolve.
As a result, Orono, Old Town and surrounding towns will lose a nonprofit that promoted the arts for more than a decade by offering festivals and programs, including student scholarships for performing arts lessons,
The organization was best known for Artsapalooza, which featured visual and performing artists at local businesses, but at one point it held a fall festival with workshops and an initiative called “random acts of art,” where people spontaneously performed around town, Carter said. Most of those have “gone into the woodwork” over time, she said.
The town has stepped in to see if the festival can be saved, but the event remains in jeopardy unless the town can find an event coordinator in the next few weeks to run it. Even if the festival goes on, it is likely to look different with a new organizer, and Carter has requested that the Artsapalooza name be dropped.
“We’ve gotten to that point where we’re lacking the volunteers [and] the support, and we’re just tired,” Carter said.
Her daughter and the group’s secretary, Camden Carter, noted that the board of directors started with 15 members and is down to five or six.
The Orono Town Council on Monday voted 5-2, with councilors Jacob Baker and Leo Kenney opposed, to spend up to $7,000 from its contingency account on the festival and seek proposals for an event planner. Of that amount, $2,000 would go to the vendor, while the rest would pay the artists and cover other event costs, said Dan Demeritt, the council’s chairperson.
The town posted a request for proposals on its website Thursday. Applications are due April 24, and the council will review them at its meeting April 29.
The council has debated whether to spend the money needed to put on the festival, which usually happens in June. Stillwater Community Arts has had to fundraise for the event each year, and it estimated that it takes about 90 hours to organize, Demeritt said.
After learning about the organization’s decision to dissolve, most councilors remained in favor of putting out a request for proposals, though Kenney suggested forgoing the festival this year and using the time to rebuild for next summer. Baker said that trying to recreate Artsapalooza in a short period of time is “reactionary,” and he would rather allocate funding for it in the town’s next budget.
“We’re not promising to recreate Artsapalooza,” Councilor Sonja Birthisel said. “We’re putting out a call for applications for people who are passionate about the arts in our community to come to us with new ideas.”
If the town does not receive quality applications, it does not need to fund them, she said.
Stillwater Community Arts is supportive of the town getting involved, and it is willing to help by sharing its process, a list of artists and anything else that may be needed, Connie Carter said.
“We’re just ready for somebody else to take the idea and hopefully create something new and wonderful with it,” she said.
