Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown invites residents to GuitarBQ on Saturday, Oct. 5, from 4 to 6:30 p.m.
“It’s really fun for the whole family,” said Perkins’ conservatory manager Tina Schofield.
GuitarBQ is a free, community event that brings together live music and barbeque in a family friendly atmosphere. Folk artist Barry Hollander will kick off events, followed by a Community Jam open to all ages and levels. There will also be an instrument petting zoo.
“The idea of GuitarBQ is just combining the two greatest things – guitar and barbeque,” Schofield said. “It’s a celebration of community, our musicians, our families, and the whole event is centered around live music.”
Following GuitarBQ, Perkins will host Artists After Dark from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9. That event is sponsored by Moorestown Creates, a subcommittee of Sustainable Moorestown.
Kahra Buss, Perkins’ executive director, explained that Moorestown Creates was originally designed to amplify creative entities and people in the community and to serve as a conduit through which artists can connect with their peers and with institutions.
“One of the reasons we’re hosting Artists After Dark is so that we can have artists who are living in or working in the Moorestown community come together and let us know what they’re looking for,” Buss explained.
“People who are living and working here may not know others who are living and working here, so it’s an opportunity for them to connect …” she added. “This is open to all creatives who live here in the community or work here.”
Perkins, MoorArts, the Moorestown library, the parks and recreation department, the Moorestown Theater Company, the township school district, West Jersey Music, Community House of Moorestown, Moorestown Friends School and Homegrown Moorestown are all members of Moorestown Creates.
“What we’re trying to do as independent institutions,” Buss noted, “is identify ways that we can support artists, offer the artists an opportunity to get to know each of us in the different capacities that we all work, and then hopefully use this (Artists After Dark) as an opportunity to elicit some feedback from creatives in our community and find out what we can do as institutions to support them.”
For more information on Perkins’ upcoming events or programs, visit www.perkinsarts.org.
