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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in;border:none"><img width="530" height="80" src="file://localhost/Users/jeffreyyorke/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_image002.png" alt="rp-letterhead-v02b"><b><span style="font-size:8pt;color:rgb(38,38,38)"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in;border:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:'Palatino Linotype'">The Riverdale Park
Arts Council educates and works for the understanding and appreciation of the
arts for the Riverdale Park community and its residents.</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:8pt;color:rgb(38,38,38)"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="margin-left:0.5in;text-align:right;border:none"><i><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(38,38,38)">Contact: Jeffrey Yorke</span></i><i><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)"></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="margin-left:0.5in;text-align:right;border:none"><i><u><span style="font-size:11pt">301-502-1243</span></u></i><i><span style="font-size:11pt">
or </span></i><a href="mailto:Yorkedial@gmail.com"><i><span style="font-size:11pt">Yorkedial@gmail.com</span></i></a><i><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(38,38,38)"></span></i></p>
<p class="" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><b><u><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:red">ArtsFest2014</span></u></b><b><u><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Arial;color:red"></span></u></b></p>
<p class="" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><b><i><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Arial;color:windowtext">Artists, Authors, Music, Food & Wine in Town
Center, May 4</span></i></b></p>
<p class="" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">RIVERDALE
PARK, MD., April 17, 2014</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> -- Bonsai, stained glass, oil paintings, jewelry,
vintage and art vehicles; throw in Sherlock Holmes for a lot rarely uttered in
the same breath. Until now when this unique blend of creativity, talent and
history are brought together May 4 at ArtsFest2014, next to the MARC Train
station in Riverdale Park’s Town Center. </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:windowtext"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Once again, the Riverdale
Park Arts Council’s seventh annual arts and music festival expects more than
1,000, rain or shine, to enjoy dozens of local artists, authors, food vendors
and a free, day-long concert featuring among others The Smokin Polecats with
Dave Sherman and featuring Riverdale Park chanteuse Marianna Previti.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">All News WTOP-FM
reporter-anchor David Burd will return for his fourth year as emcee of
ArtsFest. Joining The Smokin Polecats is an exciting lineup including - from
Nigeria via Hyattsville - drummer Tosin Aribisala, Fernando Hermoza’s Hermoza
Latin Quartet, the US Army Field Jazz Combo, and members of the Archie Edwards
Blues Heritage Foundation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">The winner of the third
annual Gerald King Fine Arts Award will be announced at the event. The award is
given by RPAC to an art student who shows great promise in realism and is named
in honor of the late Gerald King, a longtime resident of Riverdale Park. The
award will be presented by previous King Award winners Malika Bryant and
Susanna Fields-Kuehl.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">ArtsFest has earned its
reputation for depth and diversity; a showcase for both emerging and vintage,
local and regional artists who delight show-goers with details about their art
and its creation. Add to that authors happy to discuss their plots and
characters and owners of vintage vehicles reeling off details and insights
about their rides created long ago, restored with loving care, and kept in
tip-top condition.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Riverdale Park’s Ken Laureys
will display and sell Bonsai trees lovingly grown and shaped from the tiniest
little thing to the cutest little thing. Glass artist Mary Verchery of
Brentwood, and Landover’s renowned oil painter Joseph Sheppard Rogers are among
the dozens of artists participating.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Add to that a Writer’s Row,
featuring local authors such as Carrolyn Prichet, author of <i>My Lovely Golden Rose</i>, and Samuel
Williams, who moved to Riverdale Park after publication of his 2012 historical
novel, <i>Anomalous: The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes</i>. Joining the fabled sleuth are boxer Jack Johnson and
gangster Alphonse Capone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Winners of the William Wirt
Middle School art competition will offer their works for sale while the
Children’s Pavilion, staffed by Marita Novicky, will be bustling with
craft-making and face painting. </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Be it preservation,
restoration, or re-creation, ArtsFest embraces the art that is the automobile.
Hyattsville auto artist Clark Bedford will be coming to ArtsFest 2014; producer
of unusual and delightful moving art temples that brings America’s gothic metal
works, advertising kitch, and Detroit atop a set of tires. (see </span><a href="http://www.clarkebedford.com/artcars.html"><span style="font-family:Arial;text-decoration:none">http://www.clarkebedford.com/artcars.html</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial">)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">“It’s assemblage,” grins the
artist, a curator at the Smithsonian’s Hirshorn Museum, as his hand runs down
the side of metal Elk, part of The Hartford Insurance Co. logo welded to the
side of a vehicle. “I got this in Maine,” Bedford recalls. Then, moving his
hand left to the next welded-on artifact, “The moose came from Massachusetts.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Each odd piece of art is a
memory and has a story that the artist/storyteller spills out with delight.
Double-side doors open to the interior of a rustic cabin in the woods, making
it difficult for the average person to remember that all of this wonderment is
affixed to a 1988 Ford van Bedford has named Vanadu. The artist gathers unique
ornaments from travels along America’s blue highways, from flea markets, and
occasionally from Community Forklift. It’s a sight to behold, not to mention the
tales from the artist, and it can all be enjoyed at ArtsFest2014. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">Riverdale Park</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">’</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">s Brian Boettger, an architect who also consults the Town</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">’</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">s MUTC committee on development
issues, collects and refurbishes vintage cars. He expects to bring his maroon
with black trim 1930 DeSoto CF8 sedan with its original interior. And folks are
looking forward to seeing their neighbor, Tony Fotos, who</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">’</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">s has agreed to bring up to three
entries from his expansive collection of classics rides from the </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">‘</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">40s and </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">‘</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">50s. Perhaps he</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">’</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">ll park one of them next to Jim
Rogers of Ravenswood Road who</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">’</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">s warming up his 1949 Chevy pick up. When Jim plopped down
$2,000 for the rusting truck seven years ago, </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">“</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">animals were living in it,</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">”</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"> he remembers. </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">“</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">Whatever you can do to a truck, you
name it, I</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">’</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">ve done it!</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">”</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"> Now, hundreds of hours of love later, people are going ape
over the sight of it. Now that</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">’</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)">s a national park!</span><span style="font-family:Arial"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">And, a panel of expert
judges will again go over each entry and pick winners in a handful of roadster
categories. Vehicle entries are accepted through May 1. Get application: </span><a href="http://www.rpartscouncil.org"><span style="font-family:Arial;text-decoration:none">www.rpartscouncil.org</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial">.</span></p>
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<p class="" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">There are still a few select slots available to artists, authors
and food vendors. More information can be found at </span><a href="http://www.rpartscouncil.org/"><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">http://www.rpartscouncil.org/</span></span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10pt">Contributions for RPAC maybe
tax deductible through the group's relationship with the Hyattsville Community
Development Corporation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. <i><span style="color:red">ArtsFest2014</span> </i>is
made possible by the generous support of the Town of Riverdale Park, the
Riverdale Lions Club, Yorke Partners, Michael D. Herman, Esq. & Associates,
Geppetto Catering Inc., Washington’s choice for corporate catering, Town Center
Market and by Dumm’s Pizza & Subs, now featuring unique Greek-style
specialties.</span></b></p>
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