The Mattoon Arts Council will be hosting the first Mattoon Artworks Festival from noon to 7:30 p.m. June 16 in and around the bandshell in Peterson Park, 1215 Division St, Mattoon.

The festival will feature 17 art vendors, hands-on projects and craft making, performances by local talents, and a talent contest said Janahn Kolden, vice chair of the Mattoon Arts Council.

Kolden said she hopes the first Mattoon Artworks Festival will expose the community to the local art scene and art in general.

“Our mission with the Mattoon Arts Council is to try and provide the opportunity for people to be exposed to the arts,” she said.

The Summer Strings, an orchestra program for young students in Charleston, will open the event at noon, followed by performances by the Mattoon Middle School jazz band at 12:30 p.m.

Sullivan artist Karl Jendry will demonstrate the art of speed painting at 1 and 3:30 p.m. Speed painting involves an artist placing what seem to be random splashes of paint on a canvas, Kolden explained. The artist sums up the work with a few final brushstrokes that complete the painting and give it a final, clear image.

Dancers from Margene’s Dance Studio in Mattoon and Mattoon High School will then perform at 1:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.

The Mattoon High School drama club will present “Storybook Theater” at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m., performing classic children’s fables and poems from writers such as the Brothers Grimm.

Students will take turns acting as the classic authors to narrate the performances, said Rebecca Nevius, Mattoon High School drama club director.

Local musician James Reed and the group Muddy Grove will perform at 3 and 4 p.m., respectively.

Reed is a Mattoon electric guitarist who is new to the local music scene, and Muddy Grove is a pop-folk band, Kolden said.

The final event of the festival will be “Mattoon’s Got Talent,” a talent show for local students between the ages or 10 and 18.

The talent show will be organized by the Mattoon Public Library’s Teens Program, headed by director Ryan Franklin, and will begin at 5 p.m.

There will be three groups of musical performers, Franklin said, and performers will not be judged. Each group will be recognized for their unique talents.

Throughout the day, arts vendors will be selling their handcrafted items, and students from the Mattoon High School art club will be selling pottery they made, said Kolden, who is also an art teacher at the high school.

Former Eastern ceramics professor Bill Heyduck will be demonstrating how to make pottery on a potter’s wheel.

Children will also have the opportunity to create their own crafts for free and take them home at several make-and-take tents, Kolden said.

She said she is excited to present the first Mattoon Artworks Festival to the community and hopes it will become an annual event.

Tim Deters can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].