2013-02-20 00:35:43 - Community Sponsors will Support City’s Only Free Children’s Art Classes; Salinas River Conservation Over Memorial Day Weekend, May 25-27, 2013

The Paso Robles Festival of the Arts, the annual, free-entrance Memorial Day Weekend event honoring and preserving the natural beauty and character of the region through the arts, will again raise funds to support Studios on the Park community art programs and Salinas River conservation this year on May 25-27, 2013 at the Paso Robles City Park. Aided by its first two generous $5,000 sponsors, the festival aims to make 2013 a record-breaking fundraising success for the arts and the earth.
“We are thrilled to start fundraising off on the right foot for this year’s Festival of the Arts with our two first major sponsors,” said Festival of the Arts event organizer Barbara Partridge.
Partridge explains that sponsorship donations

are used to produce the festival, which last year welcomed 6,000 guests and 144 artists, and which is one of the only events of its kind to offer free entrance. A portion of the proceeds from sales made at the event benefit programs like Kids Art Smart (a program offering free art classes for kids), as well as the Salinas River Corridor Project.
Last year’s event enjoyed the sponsorship support of 65 individuals and businesses; sold over $65,000 in art; and raised approximately $34,000, half of which went to the two charitable organizations, while the other half went back to the event itself. Partridge says the vision for the 2013 Festival of the Arts is to raise even more funds in support of local arts and the environment.
“It is because of the generosity of our first 2013 sponsors—IQMS and Wayne and Wendy Hughes—and the other sponsors to come that Studios on the Park continues its commitment to providing Paso Robles the only free art classes for elementary school children,” Partridge says.
This is not the first time longtime Paso Robles residents and Gold Level sponsors Wayne and Wendy Hughes have chosen to support the local arts scene: they founded the Cantinas Ranch Foundation as well as the new Cantinas Music Festival in Paso Robles to encourage talented Christian teen and college-level artists and to promote healthy family values and interactions. Wendy Hughes is also the executive director of the Foundation’s Celebration of the Arts programs for Christian artists. “I want to support the arts as a way to give back to the community that I love,” says Wendy Hughes of their sponsorship of the Festival of the Arts event.
With the help of more passionate donors like the Hughes family, Partridge says, “We hope to make this fifth year of the event our strongest yet, providing both a showcase for the arts in Paso Robles and a means of supporting art programs in the community for many years to come.”
The Paso Robles Festival of the Arts was born of a need to raise awareness of the Salinas River Corridor Project at the same time that Studios on the Park was preparing to open its doors to the public for the first time. After the resounding success of the inaugural Festival, its mission is to continue to support the arts and the environment in Paso Robles. A portion of proceeds raised through the Festival go to support the Salinas River Corridor Project and Studios on the Park.
For more information about the Festival of the Arts or to make a donation, visit www.PasoArtFestival.com. For media inquiries, contact AR & Company PR & Marketing at (805) 239-4443 or pr@arandcompany.com.