INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCES & INSTALLATIONS

One World Puppets

One World Puppetry and Performance Art is an interactive and experiential performance group. This includes puppets, puppet making and pageantry, stilt walking, hula hooping, musicians and their music. They have worked in many communities, and whether traveling to music & art festivals to working with local churches, bring fun and excitement to where ever we are performing, and an experience with puppets that will stay with you long after the performance is done.


Time Machine

The Time Machine is an interactive art installation where one can perpetuate his existence in time through sight and sound. Our highly trained Time Machine Temptresses will prepare you for the journey as you witness the trips of those already in the Time Machine through live video mapping and performance art. Whether you're looking for an individual time transcending excursion, or traveling in time-gathering groups of two or ten, you will experience a momentary lapse in time amidst projected videos and vibrant sounds beyond time itself.


Cosmic Karma Fire Trouperong

Cosmic Karma Fire was started in 2005 by the original four members; Greg, Marsa, Jaero, and Jessie. The group is based in New York but travels all over the US and beyond. The troupe has grown since then, adding several amazing people to the group and creating the unique fire performing troupe it is today. Each member has their own distinct style and dance, performing several different acts and varieties. They perform as a pair or in a configuration of many performers. Cosmic Karma Fire Troupe is sure to create a unique and unforgettable memory at Bella Terra.


Live Glass Blowing by Last Fair Deal

Last Fair Deal is an artisan vending cooperative loosley comprised of some of the premiere glassblowers in the Northeast. This creatively diverse group has teamed up and hit the road this summer not only to deliver their handmade creations directly to the festival scene, but also to demonstrate their glassblowing skills live to the public. In doing so, they hope to empart a greater appreciation of local art in general and the unique medium of borosilicate glass in paticular.


LIVE PAINTING

Several artists will be creating live painting at Bella Terra Festival 2011. The driving idea behind the live painting concept is that the artist is influenced by the musical acts produce sound on stage, by interactions with audience members, and the festival's entire atmosphere. So, in essence, the live painting is the artist's interpretation of the musical sounds, the crowd's response, and any other factors that actively influence the artist during the creative process. Live paintings will be created by…


Michael Boroniec

A Berkshire County, Massachusetts native, Michael Boroniec, resides and creates sculptural and other artistic works in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His work is a journalistic approach, a photograph or chronograph of time, primarily focusing on materials and the direct relationship to the viewer, location, and society. Michael's primary work is sculptural, though he has also found success and audiences for his work in other media including painting, printmaking, and experimental/time-based art. His work chronicles the times, often taking ready-made objects and transforming them into iconographic representations of our culture. He explains 'art' is an alternate way of communication.

"There is a time and place when the work was created. It takes me there. My art chronicles our times."

Michael Boroniec has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cermaics from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence (2006).. His works have been selected and shown nationally and internationally, with his collection being held at the Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.


Emily Jean

Emily Jean is an on the spot artist. Traveling the country, making art and finding great homes for her pieces, Em J does her best to capture the sounds of music and incorporate intricate ideas into her work. She is known for her fairy tale style of brightly colored landscapes and has earned the nickname Faerie Godmother because with most of her artwork come great tales of her many friends and adventures who are responsible for her inspiration. Making art affordable for all, her goal is to create as many "one of a kind" paintings as she possibly can, so she works quickly usually finishing an acrylic painting in one set list of a her favorite band.


Ryan Zurrin

Ryan Zurrin creates visually stimulating illustrations using markers, pens and other materials on a variety of mediums. His indefinable style is often characterized by abstract surrealism, urban themes, bright colors and complex images - always a trip to explore his creations. Sure to impress onlookers at their first glance, they are only more blown away when looking deeper into his creation and realize the amount of hidden images within the initially apparent depiction.


Graffiti Mural Painting

As large as 50 ft. wide and 8 ft. tall murals have been erected and painted at previous Bella Terra Festival's. This year we will be displayed some of the previous year's pieces, as well as blank walls for new creations in 2011, some from new faces and others from old friends, featuring Outside the Lines, Graffiti Summer Camp and others.


COMMUNITY ART OPPORTUNITIES


Vernville Gaudy Lounge

What would the Vernville stage be without the Gaudy Lounge? Certainly not as colorful, that's for sure. Vernville is returning to Bella Terra with its signature Gaudy Lounge, a staple at festivals throughout the northeast and featuring unique community mural painting, with the Bella Terra community invited to pick up a brush and paint whatever comes to mind. The gaudy lounge offers a variety of different paints, including a plethora of glow-in-the-dark varieties, black light illumination, and the end result being a truly illuminating mural that depicts a little bit of everyone's vision.


Paint The Van

Paint The Van is a white van that travels through the country, stopping at various events for patrons to decorate the vehicle body with improvisational painting. The Paint the Van vehicle is available for ad space, promotional events, live paintings and displays. So stop by, get creative, and bear in mind the Paint The Van philosophy.. to spread art and joy across the land with an old white van!

Paintthevan.com


OTHER ATTRACTIONS

Costume Contest

Feel like role playing? Well, Bella Terra Festival loves impromptu street performer style theatrics. Stand out, dress up and you could be chosen to win any number of prizes ranging from artist or Bella Terra Festival merchandise to VIP upgrades or tickets to next year's Bella Terra Festival. We'll have roaming judges to ask costume wearing patrons to enter our costume contest. Or, you can stop by the Bella Terra Festival Merch Booth hosted by Brighter Daze and have your photo taken to be in the running. There are no grand prizes or first or second places. Instead, we will be periodically awarding participants who have definitely kicked things up a notch and dropped our jaws.


Acoustic Brunch

On Friday and Saturday mornings, acoustic performances will be held in the outdoor seating area adjacent Gardner's Diner, featuring sets from Hot Buttered Rum String Band (1 of 3 festival sets), The Kind Buds, Big Rooster and Divinitress. Come by as music kicks off the day in acoustic fashion and breakfast available from Gardner's Diner and affordably priced.


Gardner's Diner

Gardner's Ice Cream & Coffee, our gracious and hospitable hosts, will be operating their diner near the entrance of the festival grounds, and adjacent the miniature golf crunch and acoustic brunch stages (see below). They serve traditional diner food, where you can eat in for climate controlled dining, or sit outside at a picnic table after ordering from the walk up window. Whatever you preference, Gardner's offers a deliciously unique dining option in a festival environment.


Community Campfire and Campfire Jams

We will have a campfire centrally located at Bella Terra, with late night acoustic entertainment for your enjoyment after the amplified stages wind down. We will feature improvisational collaborations by surprise musical guests on Friday night, and Hot Buttered Rum leading a improvisational acoustic campfire jam on Saturday night. These performances are a special experience, and will undoubtedly leave a lasting impression.


Miniature Golf & Disco Mini Golf

Gardner's has a miniature golf course open for use during Bella Terra Festival. Stop by with some friends you came with, new friends or a special lady for game of miniature golf to lend to your Bella Terra experience. When the sun goes down, our miniature golf course will transition to a Disco Mini Golf game… You've heard of Disco Bowling, with the flashing lights and added fun. Well, Bella Terra Festival 2011 is offering Disco Golf.


Kid's Tent

The kid's tent at Bella Terra Festival will feature an assortment of programming specifically geared toward children. We will be offering music and drum workshops/classes, live glass blowing demonstrations by Last Fair Deal to show how to make glass jewelry, hemp jewelry making workshop (using glass beads from Last Fair Deal), hula hoop instruction, and so much more. Bringing kids to Bella Terra is easy, educational, and FUN.


NONPROFITS & ACTIVIST OPPORTUNITITES

Back To School Clothing & School Supply Drive

Bella Terra Festival, Strangers Helping Strangers, Conscious Alliance and artist Robert Marx are teaming up for a back-to-school clothing & school supply drive. All contributions are welcome, though the focus is to collect clothing for persons ages 22 or younger, traditional school supplies (pens/pencils, notebooks, etc.) and items for daily living. The first 25 persons who bring 25 items or more will receive a limited edition Bella Terra Festival 2011 poster.


Strangers Helping Strangers

SHS is a non-profit organization incorporated in Massachusetts and operating throughout the country conducting food drives at concerts and music festivals, and delivering the items collected to a local food bank near the point of collection. It's our way of giving back to the communities where these concerts and music festivals take place.


Conscious Alliance

Conscious Alliance is a Boulder, Colorado based national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to the distribution of much-needed food to impoverished communities across the United States. Operating through ongoing, grassroots food collection and hunger awareness programs throughout the U.S.-mostly by organizing food drives at concerts and music events-donations to Conscious Alliance benefit America's local food pantries and economically isolated Native American reservations. In 2010, Conscious Alliance expanded its focus to include not only emergency food relief, but social development work on reservations as well, with several projects directed toward Native American youth that are intended to help the younger generation develop and uphold a strong relationship to their community and culture.


Frack Action

Frack Action is a grassroots campaign to protect our water, air, public health and economy from the dangerous practice of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fracking is a method of gas extraction where many million gallons of water contaminated with highly toxic chemicals are injected deep underground to break apart rock to free tiny little bubbles of methane gas ("natural gas"). This process has been linked to over 1,000 incidents of groundwater contamination in the United States, including many cases where people can actually ignite their tap water. Frack Action was instrumental in passing a moratorium on fracking (the first of its kind in the world!), and are now fighting for a permanent ban on fracking in the region. Get involved by signing the petition for a statewide ban, volunteer, donate and/or spread the word; Visit Frack Action's booth at Bella Terra 2011 for more info!


Berkshire Environmental Action Team

Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) formed in 2002 when a group of concerned citizens watched as the system of laws and regulations that are meant to protect the environment failed to do just that for a vernal pool despite regulators at local and state levels being aware of the concerns. BEAT's mission is to keep people informed and active about environmental issues affecting The Berkshires and western Massachusetts through their website, newsletter, television programming, and regular gatherings, forums and workshops. As a non-profit, BEAT accomplishes their goals in part by working with other groups and individuals. BEAT hosts Berkshire Keeping Track wildlife monitoring program to minimize the impact on migratory animals and other wildlife.

BEAT's executive director, Jane Winn, was recently voted environmentalist of the year by the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions, and has a seat at the table for Citizen's Coordinating Council to meet with General Electric (GE), US Environmental Proection Agency (EPA), Department of Environmental Protection and other agencies to continually push for better clean up of the PCB catastrophe General Electric unleashed on the world.

B.E.A.T. will have literature available and donation collection containers at Bella Terra Festival's merch booth.


Rage Free

Rage Free is a group of clean and sober music fans at Bella Terra that love to get down and dirty, without the use of any mind-altering substances. The music is our "drug". Our main goal is to provide support, community and information to other kids that don't want to use. We have absolutely no opinion on alcohol and drugs; we neither condemn nor condone it. The only requirement is the desire to stay substance free at shows. Though Rage Free consists primarily of people recovering from various addictions, we welcome anyone who wishes to remain clean and sober at the Fest. Apart from a host of clean and sober music lovers you will find varied playful sundries including great stuff like stickers, candy, set-list kits, and smiles - lots of smiles. We also have the booth as a location to provide 12 step style recovery meetings twice daily where kids can share their experience, strength and hope about raging substance free. Anyone is welcome to attend. Keep your eyes peeled for the yellow ballons and our booth located in the vending area of Bella Terra Festival.