Downtown Waupaca hosts creative activities for families, live music, art shows

A week of live music, art shows, workshops, street dancing and food runs Aug. 14-20, kicking off Arts on the Square
Hosted by the Waupaca Community Arts Board, ARTicipation Week is hosted by the Waupaca Community Arts Board.

Dubbed, the days leading up to Saturday’s Arts on the Square have something happening every day.

Opening Day

The festival kicks off with a celebration from 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14, in Waupaca’s City Square, with a sing-along jam session featuring The Retrogrades and Waupaca Community Arts Hub music teachers in the historic bandstand.

A song list with chords can be found at www.waupacaarts.org/. The public is encouraged to participate.

Opening Day is also the official beginning of Waupaca’s Monumental Obelisk Forest Community Art Project.

More than 100 obelisks, created by Waupaca area individuals and organizations that celebrate what they love about Waupaca, will be on display in the City Square atrium.

The Monumental Obelisk Forest will stay in the atrium through the end of the Arts on the Square festival, Aug. 20.

Opening Day also will host Waupaca’s Sidewalk Poets, showcasing samples of their work and meeting the public. Tour brochures for viewing downtown’s Poetry at Your Feet will be available.

Rounding out the event, Gravel Road Farms will host a Fresh Flower Bar. Flowers are free to the public, courtesy of WCAB.

Monday, Aug. 15

Waupaca has received a community street piano, courtesy of Eric Bestul, which will reside in the City Square Bandstand throughout the summer and fall months for public playing.

To make the piano more colorful, WCAB and the Waupaca Area Public Library will host a Community Street Piano Painting Day, 1-3 p.m. Monday in the City Square Bandstand.

Volunteers from the library and Arts Hub will provide painting supplies and guidance to the public. Community members of all ages are encouraged to come help create a colorful street piano for the public’s use.

To round out the day, WCAB is providing self-guided Poetry at Your Feet tour brochures at The Bookcellar, 110 S. Main St. The poems are embedded in the downtown sidewalks and were written by area poets.

Tuesday, Aug. 16

In the evening, the EspressO Yourself Poetry Reading will be from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Aquamos Coffee Collaborative, 217 S. Main St.

Co-hosted by WCAB and the Waupaca library, the outdoor event will feature area poets reading original work.

Audience members will be invited to put their name in the spinner for a chance to read or sing their own poetry.
Food and beverages will be available for sale. Outdoor seating is limited to 70.

After the poetry event, the Deep-Fried Comedy Show, with headliner Sean Patrick Moore and featuring Rich D’Amore, will start at 8 p.m. across the Aquamos parking lot at Weasels Pizza, 108 E. Union St.

Moore has won local and regional comedy competitions including the Skyline Comedy Club’s Funniest of the Fox Valley 2018. He was a finalist in the World Series of Comedy and a featured comedian in the Savage Henry Comedy Festival. His album, Nothin Special, debuted at No. 1 on Spotify.

D’Amore has performed at Milwaukee Comedy Fest, Madison Comedy Week, and at the San Diego Comedy Festival in past years.
Waupaca’s Ben Warren is hosting the comedy show.

Wednesday, Aug. 17

Wednesday, Aug. 17

A three-day Kids’ Art Camp, sponsored by the Waupaca Community Arts Hub, begins Aug. 17 at the Waupaca Library. Running noon to 3 p.m. each day, “Found, Altered and Assembled” is an arts placemaking experience for kids 10-14.

The camp will challenge participants to see the art hidden around them. Using everyday materials and found objects youth artists will create art that is intended to be hunted for, discovered, and interacted with by community members during Arts on the Square and beyond.

Camp pre-registration is required. Class is limited to 12 students. Registration is online at Waupaca Arts on the Square Kids Art Camp Registration 2022 — Waupaca Community Arts Board.

A special Heart and Soul Piano Event will be from 5:30-6 p.m. in the City Square Bandstand, to celebrate Waupaca’s new community street piano.

Arts Hub students and their friends and families will be performing, but the public is encouraged to join in the fun playing the popular Hoagie Charmichael and Frank Loesser duet, “Heart and Soul.”

After the duets, the public can follow a golden-note path into the Waupaca library’s Exhibit Room for the Arts Hub’s Inaugural Student Exhibit Opening, 6-8 p.m.

In addition to their displayed artwork, Hub students will perform live music.

The arts exhibit will be open to the public Aug. 6 through mid-October.

Thursday, Aug. 18

Oshkosh chalk and graphite artist, Mike Gelhar, will be downtown most of the day creating one of his detailed chalk drawings.

The public is invited to come watch Gelhar work.

Gelhar will then be on hand to inspire young chalk artists during Kids Chalking Downtown, 4-5 p.m., in Waupaca City Square.

Children are invited to create sidewalk chalk creations on the sidewalks of City Square. Chalk will be provided by WCAB.

Following the chalking event, Waupaca Local Live will host Natural Satellite, 5-6 p.m., in the 96.3 Radio FM studio in the lower level of City Hall.

Based in the Fox River Valley, the duo plays original music featuring vocals, cello and saxophone.

Afterwards. the duo will perform, 6:30-8 p.m., at Little Fat Gretchen’s, 108 S. Main St.

The downtown restaurant will be serving drinks and desserts.

Friday, Aug. 19

The festival heats up in the evening with MoJoe & Friends performing under the Arts on the Square Main Tent on East Union Street, next to the Waupaca Library.

MoJoe & Friends takes the best of the blues, R&B, and rock to create a musical style best described as, funky blue Americana.

Joining MoJoe for this performance is power vocalist Sasha Sauer from Green Bay, the lead vocalist with Brass Differentia, a New Orleans style jazz, funk and soul band. Also joining the group on percussion is Mike Underwood from Oshkosh the drummer for Steve March-Torme, The Presidents, and Jazz Orgy.

WCAB also will be raffling off a complete set of five Union Street Mural mugs.

The mugs feature the 100-foot Union Street Mural created by artist Leif Larson in 2020. Raffle tickets will be sold during the evening, with a winner announced from the stage.

Food and beverages begin at 6 p.m., Music is 7-10 p.m.

The Phantom Art Gallery opens 5-8 p.m. at LOOT Vintage & Supply, 219 Jefferson St. Featuring the work of area artists for viewing and for sale, the pop-up gallery will offer wine and live music. Art pieces will be available for viewing and for sale.

For more details on ARTicipation Week, the Friday Night Street Dance, and the Arts on the Square festival, go to WCAB’s website.