My fourth week at the McConnell Arts Center primarily consisted of preparation for the Worthington Arts Festival, which took place the following weekend. As majority of the staff is relatively new, only our executive director had assisted in putting on the festival, making the process and preparation new to everyone else.

The week was spent helping out where I was needed, putting together bins for our booths, creating vendor label for the 110 artists who attended, and creating promotional material for the MAC to display throughout the festival. Friday, the day before the festival began, the MAC held our Preview Picnic, in which those who bought tickets could have dinner and view featured artists’ booths before the festival opened to the general public. I helped set up the Preview Picnic, then distributed guest dinners and booth sat for the artists while they ate.

When the festival began Saturday morning, I walked around to artist tents and passed out booth signs which had been made the previous week. I spent the beginning of the morning walking through the festival, bringing supplies to artists or MAC staff who needed them. I then sat at the MAC information booth, greeted festival attendees, and spent the day promoting the McConnell Arts Center and our upcoming programs. I spent the rest of the festival at the MAC tent and while there met many board members and volunteers, I loved to hear their stories and their passion for the McConnell Arts Center.

The festival went exceptionally well, as we had over ten thousand attendees. While at the information tent, I was able to promote our upcoming events and educate festival attendees on MAC programming and the impact we have within the Worthington and greater Columbus community.