Paint Berlin Event Planned

BERLIN – Artists will
take to the streets of Berlin in August for three days of open-air painting in
the town’s first annual Paint Berlin event.

“We had been thinking
about this for a few years. No one else had decided to come up to bat,” said
Carol Dorman, assistant administrator of the Worcester County Arts Council.
“Our mission is to promote arts in Worcester County. We thought this was a good
chance to do that.”

After the three days of
Paint Berlin, from Aug. 13-15, the artworks produced will be exhibited and sold
in a “wet paint” sale Sunday afternoon.

The Worcester County
Arts Council will get a 25-percent commission from all sales, as it does in its
co-op art gallery just off Berlin’s Main St.

The arts council will
not make any money off the event, said Dorman.

“It’s just something we
want to do to promote arts and artists in Worcester County,” she said.

Artists will be working
out in the open throughout town, painting or otherwise artistically rendering
what they see. Visitors can stop and watch the process of creation.

“It’s to bring tourism
into the town and to allow the public to see art being done right on the
street,” said Dorman.

Participating artists
must register with the Worcester County Arts Council by July 16 to take part in
the non-competitive Paint Berlin weekend. The registration fee for the event,
covering participation in the sale, a barbecue on Saturday and a Paint Berlin
baseball cap is $25.

So far between 10 and 15
artists have registered to participate, Dorman said, from Ocean Pines,
Salisbury and Greenbackville, Va.

Plein Air painting
events, which call for artists to paint out in the open air, are popular across
the region, with Snow Hill, which held its plein air event in April this year,
Easton, Ocean City and many other communities hosting the art initiatives.

The Snow Hill plein air
art event saw its seventh annual event this spring, hosting 50 artists on the
streets of the Worcester County seat this time.

“I think it compliments
the direction the town is going in terms of cultural tourism,” said Berlin
Mayor Gee Williams.

Berlin already has an
arts and entertainment district, Williams noted.

“Hopefully, this will
put us on the map even more,” said Williams.