Season Kick-Off Festival

Flourish festival artwork with plants and flowers

Held in September, Mesa Arts Center’s annual Season Kickoff Event celebrates the start of each season and is inspired by exhibitions opening in the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum. The festival offers an evening of celebration and entertainment, with live music, art studio demonstrations, five new exhibitions, hands-on activities, delicious foods and more! Check back often as festival features and entertainment are announced!

FLOURISH

The Art of Life on Earth

Bloom and grow wild at the 2019-20 season kickoff event! The free, family-friendly festival is inspired by Flora & Fauna, one of five exhibitions opening in the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum this fall. Through the exhibitions, live entertainment, artmaking, demonstrations, delicious food and drink and more, the event invites us all to look closer and celebrate the incredible, fascinating world in which we live.

Season Kickoff Campus Map

ACTIVITIES WITH

Desert Botanical Garden
Phoenix Zoo
Liberty Wildlife
Compost demonstrations with Recycle City
Art Studios open house and demonstrations
- Jewelry Studio (demos in classroom)
- Glass Hotshop (chairs will be set up in space to watch demos)
- Glass Studio (demos in classroom)
- Painting/Drawing Studio (exhibition in classroom)
- Ceramics Studio (demos in classroom –– outside door open with table outside)
- Printmaking Studio (demos in classroom)
- Lapidary Studio (enameling on the 2nd floor between sculpture and jewelry)
Creative Catalyst
Mesa Recycles
Arizona Museum of Natural History fossil and artifact interpretation stations and dino dig box
Paper butterflies with i.d.e.a. Museum
Mesa Public Library storytelling at :15 and :45 every hour with activities
Green City Magazine
The Biomimicry Center at ASU
Transplanting baby succulents and making smudge sticks with Mesa Urban Garden
Mesa Farmer's Market and Flea
Fuerza Local Community Kitchen (Local First Arizona)

LIVE MUSIC AND PERFORMANCES

Alliance Pavilion Stage
- Citrus Clouds 6-6:45pm
- Hot House Orchids 7-7:45pm
- Paper Foxes 8-8:45pm
- Bogan Via 9-10pm
Theater Lobby (acoustic sets)
- Paper Foxes 6-6:45pm
- Palo Brea 7-7:55pm
- Dog Apes (by Southwest Shakespeare Company) 8-8:45pm
- Citrus Clouds 9-10pm
Wells Fargo Stage
- Water=Life Artists
  - Tony Duncan, five-time World Champion Hoop Dancer and Native American flute player
  - Violet Duncan, Native American dancer, storyteller and author
  - Katharine Simpson, Roaming Blue Heron
  - Toby Jose, Native American singer and percussionist
- Schedule:
  
  6pm Toby Jose – Welcoming
  
  6:15-6:45pm – Tony Duncan
  
  7:15-7:45pm – Violet Duncan
  
  8:15-8:45pm – Tony Duncan
  
  9:15-9:45pm – Toby Jose
Arroyo
- CaZo Dance Company

TASTY EATS & DRINKS

Bring your own water bottle! Stay hydrated and fill your own water bottle at City of Mesa's Water Resources Water Bar
Soundbite Food Truck/Shortleash Hot Dogs
Freak Brothers Pizza
Awesomesauce Bowls
SuperFarm SuperTruck
Udder Delights
Paletas Betty
Not Your Granny's Apples
Cuties Lemonade
Dulce Vida
Two bars located on campus