Ten-day arts festival begins July 6 in Warwick

Warwick — Jimmy Sturr and his Orchestra, Jose Conde Y Ola Fresca, Nation Beat and The Kissers are all part of the eighth annual Warwick Summer Arts Festival, a ten-day celebration of the arts featuring workshops, concerts and art exhibits from July 6 to July 15, at sites around the town of Warwick, The festival opens on Friday, July 6 at 7:30 p.m., with Jose Conde Y Ola Fresca at Railroad Green in the Village of Warwick. Singer-songman José Conde and his New York-based band are funkifying Afro-Cuban music, breaking the rules of salsa while maintaining the genre’s original spirit of innovation. His new album is “(R)Evolución,” On Saturday, July 7, at 7:30 p.m., the festival partners with the Village of Warwick Concert series to present Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra at Stanley Deming Park in the Village of Warwick. Winner of 14 Grammy Awards, Warwick’s own Jimmy Sturr is the Polka King of the United States. In addition to their own CDs, they have recorded with many other artists, including Willie Nelson\The Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Boots Randolph, Mel Tillis, Brenda Lee, plus banjo virtuoso, Bela Fleck, and folk legend Arlo Guthrie. The Opera Company of the Highlands performs on Sunday, July 9, at 7:30 p.m., at the newly designated Thomas P. Morahan Waterfront Park, the town beach at Greenwood Lake. The opera company was founded in 2005 with the mission to present professional opera performances in Orange County. Artistic Director Claudia Cummings has created an evening of songs, featuring four soloists, showing the relationship of opera to Broadway including repertoire from “Romeo and Juliet,” “West Side Story,” La Boheme” and “Rent.” Film Night at the Warwick Valley Community Center opens at 8 p.m., showing “Future Car” and a “Now/Ahora.” Hudson Valley resident Matt Bennet traveled the world during the creation of “Future Car,” a documentary for the Discovery Channel about the diverse technologies that exist to mobilize the automobile, including cars that are powered by the sun, water and even air. Several scenes were filmed on location in Warwick. New York City artist Migdalia Luz Barens-Vera created “Now/Ahora” as part of the 9th International Biennial of Cuenca, Ecuador this past winter. “Now” is a study about documentation and fiction, presentation and representation. It is a two video piece, each made in a different county, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Cuenca, Ecuador, that captures a public intervention with a woman who carries her house with her wherever she goes. The Brazilian, funk/dance band Nation Beat will have everyone dancing on the lush grass of Scheuermann Farm and Greenhouses on Little York Road in Pine Island, starting at 7 p.m. Nation Beat is eclectic world-groove music with Brazilian roots. The Brooklyn-based group has created a new sound: they are the first American group to record in Brazil with Mestre Walter and rhythm master Jorge Martins. On Saturday, July 14, the indie rock Irish band, The Kissers, will perform in Stanley Deming Park, for a night of music and dance. The Kissers play violin, banjo, accordion, and create an array of sonic effects. Darrah Carr Dance specializes in ModERIN: a unique blend of traditional Irish step and contemporary modern dance. The company features fast-paced, high energy dances that play off traditional Irish rhythms, exploding the form with modern influences. The melodic Old School Freight Train closes the festival back at Scheuermann Farm, starting at 7 p.m. From Charlottesville, Va., Freight Train offers soulful vocals and instrumentals, blending bluegrass, jazz, Latin, and Celtic sounds. Throughout the festival, Through A Window, an exhibit of artists in the storefronts will be on display. Understanding our past/Envisioning our Future is the subtitle of Festival 2007. Old, new, used and found windows were passed out to area artists who were asked to play with this theme. On Sunday, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., Artisans As Artists, including potters, weavers, woodworkers and leatherworkers, will display and sell their work on Railroad green. Three art making workshops will be offered: Fantasy/fairy Houses: Building In Miniature, on July 7 and 14 with Barbara Lanza; Word Art on July 7, with Stacey Rosen; and Ordinary Creativity, on July 9, with Dan Mack. Festival 2007 is supported with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; New York State Funds, at the request of Senator Thomas Morahan, and administered by NY State Parks and Recreation; Orange County Tourism/Orange Arts and The County Of Orange Shop Rite of Warwick; the Town of Warwick and the Village of Warwick, with additional funding from Provident Bank, Orange and Rockland Utilities, WVT Communications, Modell’s Sporting Goods and WAMC Northeast Public Radio. The festival is a project of Community 2000 and works in partnership with the Town of Warwick, the Village of Warwick, Scheuermann Farm and Greenhouses and the Warwick Valley Community Center. For more information, visit www.warwickarts.org or call the information line at 987-9836.