The first full weekend in November each year is time for Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival, one of the best-regarded, most popular arts festivals in America. The Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival is a three-day, juried art show in Pensacola's Seville Square. Each year, it draws more than 200 of the nation's best painters, potters, sculptors, jewelers, graphic artists, craftsmen, mixedmedia artists and others who have been gifted with the ability to turn thought into beauty. They'll be competing for your attention and $25,000 in cash awards.

The Festival also features a special area set aside for Heritage Arts: demonstrations of crafts of the past, including blacksmithing, engraving, spinning, weaving and other skills.

The Children's Arts Festival is next door in Bartram Park, featuring numerous hands-on artistic opportunities provided free of charge. Projects include face painting, clay play, a flower shop, button creations, sand art, sidewalk art, and a balloon man. There will be glitter, glue, sequins and the likes for children to make things like masks, crowns, magic wands, and jewelry. The Children's Festival is open Friday for children with special needs from selected schools and is open to everyone or Saturday and Sunday.

Also in Bartram Park is the Student Art Show, which showcases the talents of both private and public school students of Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. Over 2,000 pieces of art from elementary, middle and high school students will be displayed

Live musicians hit the right notes from two stages with sounds ranging from Zydeco, Cajun, jazz and blues to classical. The performing arts stage showcases theater, folk and ballet dance.

Food and beverages will be available from a variety of vendors, including some of Pensacola's best-known restaurants.

Admission to the festival is free, as are programs and maps. Posters and t-shirts are available. Festival hours are 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (November 7 and 8) and 9 a.m. until 4 p.m on Sunday (November 9.) More information is available at www.ggaf.org.

International Invited Artist

This year's international invited art is Isabel María Sola Márquez. Isabel lives in Cantillana (Seville) where she paints, writes poetry, plays the guitar and the organ. She won her first painting award when she was fifteen years old and her first drawing award when she was seventeen.

She has been featured in over fifty exhibitions in Seville, Segovia, Madrid, Murcia, Cádiz and at "Instituto Cervantes" in Tetuán (Marruecos) and has won numerous prizes. Her artworks can be found in many public and private collections, including the the Royal Maestranza Museum, the Baeza Museum, the Zarzuela Palace, the Spanish Kings Collection, the Duchess of Alba Collection and the Count of Peñaflor Collection.

MAIN STAGE SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2008
11 a.m. Kitt Lough
2 p.m. Roman Street





SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2008
10 a.m. The Guffman Trio
11 a.m. Pensacola Opera
12:30 p.m. Holly Shelton
2 p.m. Henri's Notions
3:30 p.m. Zydeco Zoo


SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2008
11:30 a.m. Michael Lindsey
1 p.m. Montana Skies
30 p.m. The Pensacola Symphony
Orchestra








is subject to change without notice!