4th Annual Gila River Festival
September 18 – 21, 2008
For Immediate Release
Date: September 10, 2008
Contacts:
Allyson Siwik, Executive Director, Gila Conservation Coalition
575.538.8078 office; 575.590.7619 cell
Melanie Gasparich, Executive Director, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance 575.313.2203 cell
Festival to Celebrate the Gila River as a Source of Inspiration
Silver City, NM -- The fourth annual Gila River Festival, scheduled for September 18-21, 2008 in Silver City, New Mexico, is an opportunity to celebrate the Gila River as a source of inspiration. Originating in America’s first wilderness area, the Gila Wilderness, the Gila River is New Mexico’s last wild river and is rich in natural and cultural history. The Gila River Festival is a community-based event that explores the role of the Gila in our hearts and minds, and the interconnectedness of all of its communities of life.
This year’s festival will bring together experts and laypersons, artists and scientists from many disciplines, to converge on the topic of the Gila River as experienced through creative expression. “The festival will bridge the arts and sciences through workshops and activities, such as rock art, nature writing, field sketching, song writing, performance and photography,” stated Melanie Gasparich, festival coordinator. “We’ve planned four days of exciting workshops, hikes, walks, lectures and hands-on activities that will inspire us and open our eyes to the beauty of the Gila River.”
Activities include a gallery tour of some of Silver City’s exceptional fine arts galleries in the recently designated Arts and Culture District and featuring Gila River-inspired works; a keynote presentation by Arizona State University art historian, Gray Sweeney, on the role of art in settling the southwest with works by literary scholar and artist John Russell Bartlett, Henry Cheever Pratt and Seth Eastman; gallery opening of “Premonitions”, photography by 2008 Guggenheim Fellow Michael Berman; a community performance; Gila River songwriting competition; Gila River mural dedication; Gila River kayak trips; birding field trips, river hikes and a Gila River wetlands restoration project.
Festival workshop and event descriptions along with travel, lodging and on-line registration can be accessed at here. Media kit can be found here.
The 4th Annual Gila River Festival is made possible in part by the New Mexico Humanities Council, New Mexico Arts, Kalliopeia Foundation, and the McCune Charitable Foundation. Major sponsors of the festival are the Trail of the Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway, Center for Biological Diversity and the Mimbres Region Arts Council. Sponsors include: Amigos Bravos, Audubon New Mexico, Barefoot Studio, Breathe Inn, Dennis Weller, Far Flung Adventures, Gila Hike and Bike, Gila Native Plant Society, Jesse Steven Hargrave, KSIL, Morningstar, Mountain Air Productions, and New Mexico Wilderness Alliance.
For Immediate Release
Date: September 3, 2008
Contact: Allyson Siwik, Festival Organizer
575.538.8078 office
575.590.7619 cell
Silver City, September 3 -- Organizers of the 4th Annual Gila River Festival announced today the winning entries in the Gila River Festival song writing competition. “Roll On, Gila River” by Jeff Goin and “Banks of the Gila” by Wally Lawder were selected based on originality, lyrics, melody and composition. Both winners will receive a professional recording session for their prize-winning songs from Mountain Air Productions and Barefoot Studio.
The winning songs will be premiered at the Gila River Festival’s Dance for the Rio Gila on Saturday, September 20 starting at 7 pm at Isaac’s in downtown Silver City. The headliner for the Dance for the Rio Gila will be the R&B band, Edie and the Silver Blue Roots.
Songwriter Jeff Goin is a Silver City resident and enjoys backpacking in the Gila Wilderness. In fact, Goin says that it was a camping trip on the Gila River that inspired him to write "Roll On, Gila River." "I had been playing with the idea of submitting an entry for the contest for a few weeks, but every time I made an attempt, nothing flowed . . . no pun intended. Then, my girlfriend and I returned on a Sunday evening from a weekend trip on the Middle Fork. I sat down at the kitchen table and wrote 'Roll On, Gila River'."
“Roll on, Gila River” will be performed at the Dance for the Rio Gila by the Silver City String Beans, a 7 piece mountain bluegrass band formed in the Gila Wilderness. Stemming from a variety of musical backgrounds, The Silver City String Beans draw inspiration from Bluegrass to Bach, Metal To Marley and play a variety of classic songs from the likes of Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers & Old and In The Way, as well as traditional mountain music.
Singer/song writer Wally Lawder has been a musician for many years. Wally moved to New Mexico in 2003 and the influences of "the land of enchantment" have surfaced in his songwriting and performing. Since coming to the southwest he has become a favorite at the Glenwoodstock Festival, is a regular at the Tucson Folk Festival and in October he will be performing at the FAR-West Folk Alliance Conference in Phoenix. He is a prolific songwriter with three CDs of his own music and a regular performer locally and regionally. He wrote his winning song "Banks of the Gila" specifically for the Gila River Festival songwriting competition.
The evening will also feature Gurnie Dobbs of Gila performing his silly song, “The Flood of 2009.”
The 4th Annual Gila River Festival, to be held September 18 – 21 in Silver City and along the Gila, is an opportunity to celebrate the Gila River as a source of inspiration. The theme for the festival brings together experts and laypersons, artists and scientists from many disciplines, to converge on the topic of the Gila River as experienced through creative expression. To view a schedule of activities and to register on-line, visit http://www.gilaconservation.org" www.gilaconservation.org.
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