CenterFest, Durham's signature arts-and-music festival, is getting bigger and better.

Just how is yet to be determined.

"We want to reshape it and grow it" to reflect the dynamism of Durham's cultural scene, said Durham Arts Council Director Sherry DeVries. Also, to make it an attraction for the entire southeast.

To do that, DeVries said, CenterFest is taking 2011 off while the Arts Council and other agencies undertake a year-long "visioning/production process" for a remade event in 2012.

"What this announcement is about is imagination," said City Councilman Mike Woodard, a member of the Arts Council's board of trustees.

Dates, location and scope are all to be decided in the visioning process, DeVries said, but she did mention some components under consideration along with the established juried art show, dance and music:

• Food, or "edible arts";
• Beer, showcasing craft breweries;
• Wine, showcasing regional producers;
• Game design, giving a growing Durham industry a chance to show their latest games and apps before they hit the mass market.

"To make it a more uniquely Durham event," said Matthew Coppedge, marketing director with Downtown Durham Inc.

DeVries said it will probably be a multi-venue event, but with a format to encourage foot traffic toward participating visual artists.

"To show the rest of the state and the southeast and the world Durham really is where great things happen," said Shelly Green, CEO of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In lieu of this year's CenterFest, which traditionally takes place in late September, the Arts Council plans to enlarge its early-November Art Walk.
 

CenterFest, our venerable autumnal street fair, is in for an upgrade, it appears.

The Durham Arts Council, which has sponsored CenterFest every September since 1974, plans "to dramatically expand CenterFest 2012 ... to draw major Southeast region audience."

The Arts Council "has been growing and improving and expanding audiences for all of its programs and services, and now is the strategic time to revitalize and grow CenterFest into a national caliber signature event for Durham," according to a release from the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau.

CenterFest’s continuity is being broken, though. The arts council is going to “ ‘rest’ the festival for 2011” while it goes through “a one-year Visioning/Production Process” but will be expanding the November Art Walk to fill some of the gap.

Expansion details are to be announced at 10:30 Thursday morning, at the Arts Council Building.

CenterFest, which started out as a one-afternoon arts-and-music festival, grew through the 1970s and 80s to a full weekend with dozens of craft vendors, children's amusements, food stands and multiple stages for a variety of music and dance acts, spreading from Corcoran Street west to the Loop. However, since a 2005-07 makeover of downtown streets, the venue has moved to a parking lot near the Durham Farmer’s Market.
 

This morning, the Historic Preservation Commission gave an OK to the city's request to do some fixup work at the Durham Arts Council building (Durham Central High School, 1904-26; Durham City Hall, 1926-78). Biggest part of the job is rebuilding the front plaza, which has settled since its construction in 1988 to the point it's presenting hazards for foot traffic.

The access ramps are getting realigned for ADA compliance and the exterior also needs cleaning, painting, stucco and metalwork repairs and waterproofing to stop leaks into the basement.

Commissioners could find nothing objectionable and little to comment upon.

"We're bound to find something," Chairman Dan Ellison said. "Is the grass a historic shade of green?"

Sherry DeVries, executive director of the Durham Arts Council, responded to criticism on the ABCDurham listserv this week about the move of CenterFest out of the Five Points/City Center  district.

I went to CenterFest last year and had a great time. The parking lot on Foster Street may not be the most scenic, but I know from other kinds of festivals that organizers like them because they're easy to access, set up and hook to utilities. Last year we were just about to leave when the TROSA band started playing, and we moved up to the stage area to hear Cindy (sorry, don't remember her last name, anybody know?), sing "Heard It Through the Grapevine." As good as Gladys, I swear.

Anyway ... DeVries says 2008 CenterFest at the Central Park District/Foster Street site, drew 22,000 visitors, a 30 percent increase. "Artists overwhelmingly rated the site positive," she wrote, "although there were a handful of artists that are still nostalgic for the old 5-Points site." The festival had 115 visual artists, about the same as when it was downtown, and 26 performing groups, up from 16 to 18 at the old site."
 
CenterFest costs over $170,000, she said. In 2008 about $94,000 came from corporate sponsorship, $55,000 from concession sales, booth fees and donations, and the Arts Council funded the remaining $20,000.

To move CenterFest back to Five Points would increase costs another $25,000 to $30,000 (more security, more sound systems, more contract staffing, more equipment, more signage, more gates, more electrical, and much more staff time, etc.), she said. 

"The DAC Board has made a decision that this is not a prudent business decision," DeVries said. "The festival works very well in its current Central Park/Foster Street site.  Even if someone stepped up and gave us $30,000 in additional money, we think it would be wise to utilize that funding to support our community’s arts organizations, artists and arts education programs – especially in this current economy."

The autumn Durham Art Walk is just two weekends away.

The self-guided shopping tour of downtown galleries, studios and impromptu exhibits goes on Nov. 1, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Nov. 2, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., with stops that include the freshly renovated Golden Belt complex in Edgemont and recently opened Patanjali’s Place yoga/art studio next to Central Park School.

For information, see www.durhamartwalk.com; guide maps will be given out on tour days at the Durham Arts Council, 120 Morris St. (just north of Five Points).

Michael Marsicano, who directed the Durham Arts Council through the 1980s, has a story about Ella Fountain Pratt — the grande dame of Durham's arts scene who passed away Monday.

It has to do with the "street operas" she used to produce at Brightleaf Square.

Ella Fountain Pratt, diminutive grande dame of Durham arts for more than 50 years, died Monday following an illness. She was 94.

“Ella Fountain was truly a giant,” city council member Mike Woodard said, “though she stood barely five feet tall.”