Have a Sweet Time at the Lubbock Texas Arts Festival

Lubbock, Texas is the 11^th most populous city in Texas and the economic center of the Lubbock metropolitan area.  The Lubbock Arts Alliance is a non-profit organization that works to ensure that Lubbock has a vibrant, growing art scene.  Every year, the Lubbock Arts Alliance hosts the Lubbock Arts Festival, a weekend-long event that draws over 100 artists from across the nation. The Lubbock Arts Festival is the largest fine art and fine craft show in West Texas.  It is a celebration of visual, performing, culinary, and children’s art.  Nearly 150 artists will have booths at the Festival, offering a variety of art like jewelry, ceramics, glass art, photography, wood art, oils and watercolors.  The Festival also has two stages devoted to music, musical theater and various types of dance. The theme for this year’s Arts Festival is “Sweet,” and the entire Civic Center where the Festival is hosted will be decorated like Candy Land.  In the spirit of the “Sweet” theme, jelly bean artist Kristen Cumings created original works for the 2012 Lubbock Arts Festival. The “official Jelly Belly artist,” Kristen Cumings’ work is made entirely from jelly beans.  She uses thousands of jelly beans to recreate world-famous paintings and photographs.  Some of her works, including Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, are part of the Jelly Belly Candy Company corporate collection.  Cumings’ work is also shown in San Francisco Bay Area art galleries and several corporate and private collections. For the Lubbock Arts Festival, Cumings recreated three of her jelly bean art works and also made two original jelly bean portraits for the festival.  Her work will be on display at the Festival each day, and Cumings will stay near her art to answer questions throughout the Festival. The 34th Annual Lubbock Arts Festival will be held April 13-15, 2012 at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.  About 28,000 people are expected to attend.  Admission for adults is $3.00, and admission for children age twelve and under is $2.00. Have a sweet time at the Lubbock Arts Festival, and trust the Lubbock, Texas AIM Mail Center to safely pack and ship any purchases of arts and crafts!