Youth music & art will be featured Aug. 13-14

The Park Rapids Lakes Area Arts Council will showcase the artistic talents of area youth during Youth Music and Art Showcase VII Thursday and Friday, Aug. 13-14 in downtown Park Rapids.

This year's Youth Showcase coincides with Park Rapids' All School Reunion which will kick off at 2nd Street Stage with the youth band Incredibly Real opening the concert at 6 p.m. Thursday evening.

Day care providers and parents of preschoolers are invited to bring their charges downtown to do chalk art on sidewalks Friday morning. Free chalk will be available at Wildwood Enchantment, 209 South Main Ave.

Youth musicians will perform at Pioneer Park in downtown Park Rapids from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14. Solo performers will be Alex Ziemann, Evan Lowry Simpson (break dancer) and keyboard musicians Alicia Health, Zach Heath and Garit Hockett.

Bands returning this year are Hog Rooster (brothers Jacob and Owen Mahon) and the Bervig Family (Lael, Nathaniel and Eric). Prairie Thunder Drum from Pine Point also will participate. A Nevis area band with a new name - The Resistance - and some new members will play. Members of The Resistance are Joscelin Eischens, Michael Nicklaus, Austin Kalla, Andrew Sauser and Bob Sauser.

A duo of Evan Booge on saxophone and guitar and Bobby Bruce on bass clarinet and keyboard will perform. Another duo, Jasmine Glennon doing vocals and Zoe Sutton, keyboard and vocals, is on the schedule.

From noon to 4 p.m. Friday, youth are invited to add drawings or doodle on 4X4' panels in the park to create Art on the Spot. Art supplies will be provided. The panels will be displayed at the Nemeth Art Center following the event.

This activity is funded in whole or in part by a Region 2 Arts Council Grant through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund passed by Minnesota voters on Nov. 4, 2008.