Wabash FAME Festival

Student performances (piano, vocal, and dance) and student art displays, along with workshops featuring guest musicians, dancers, and visual artists, will all be a part of the Wabash FAME Festival on Saturday, March 19, 2022, from 9:00 to 4:00 at the Honeywell Center.  This is the fourteenth festival of this kind in Wabash.  Admission to the festival and participation in most activities is free-of-charge. This year’s festival theme is The Jazz Era, highlighting music and dance from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.

*Photo/video Disclaimer:

During your visit to the FAME Festival, you, members of your family or party may be filmed, videotaped and/or photographed by a FAME employee, contract photographer or the media.  Your attendance at the FAME event serves as permission for the use of your image, the image of members of your family, or your party, by FAME.

Visitors acknowledge that FAME shall own all rights, title, and interests in all photographs and materials created incorporating the photograph or likeness. 

Guest Performing Artists

This year’s festival theme is The Jazz Era, highlighting music and dance from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.  Special guest music artists will be Rod Noftsger’s Fascinating Rhythm Band. Rod is from Plymouth and his band members are from various cities in northern Indiana.  The ten members play standard swing and jazz standards, such as songs made popular by Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Frank Sinatra. The band recently performed at the Dick Quigley Jazz Festival in Peru, Indiana and in Warsaw, IN with Denver Bierman of Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. Mr. Noftsger has performed professionally all over the world, including Nashville, Tennessee where he performed for over twenty years both as a band leader and as a featured trumpet soloist.

Following the jazz theme, Dr. Jason Gornto from Peru, Indiana will entertain throughout the day on the baby grand piano in the lobby at Honeywell Center. Jason is a well-known and respected musician who loves to play jazz music and improvise on the keys. He is the vocal music director at Peru High School and has recently been contracted to be the director for Wabash Area Community Theater’s production of Guys and Dolls next September.

For dance enthusiasts, two local dance studios will present half-hour dance workshops for students and adults to learn how to dance two styles of jazz. Wabash Valley Dance Theater’s Lisa Mattern-Billings will teach Charleston dance at a 10:30 workshop in Ford Theater. Andrea Lanham from Playhouse Studio of Dance will teach Fosse style of jazz at 1:00 on stage in the theater.

The jazz musicians and dancers will perform during the Spotlight Concert at the end of the day in the 3:00 closing concert.

Guest Visual Artists

Guest visual artists will teach 45-minute workshops throughout the day.  Local artist Susan Stewart will teach sessions of Block Printing in the Crystal Room downstairs at Honeywell Center starting at 10:00, 11:00, 1:00 and 2:00. Participation will be limited to 20 students aged 7 or older. Adults may participate if the session is not filled with students. Participants will design their own cardboard block and then use that block for creating their print. Susan is well-known in the Wabash area as an artist using fused glass in many of her projects, including the Wabash County ornament from the Visit Wabash office for Christmas 2020, She likes many avenues of artistic expression, having been a professional photographer, a jewelry designer, and an artist using various media. She currently teaches at St. Bernard Elementary School and guest teaches in the Home School Art classes.

Debbie Stouffer is a self-proclaimed “Do It Yourself” Artist. She studied art through 4-H, high school and college. She likes to explore all mediums and canvases. Her workshop students will stamp designs on cloth using fabric paint.  Participants may bring a pair of jeans to paint, if they desire, or they may paint a drawstring tote bag that will be provided. Sessions will begin at 9:30, 10:30, 12:30 and 1:30 in the Nixon Room downstairs at the center. Participation is limited to 25 people for each session.

Student Performances

Student music performances will be in Legacy Hall during the morning hours.

• 9:00; Carolyn Stoner from the Honeywell Arts staff will lead a ukulele how-to session at 9:00,
• 9:30; followed by the Wabash Middle School strings at 9:30, directed by Kaitlyn Whinery.
• 10:00; Southwood Kindergarten students will sing at 10:00, led by teacher Lisa Fadil;
• 10:30; Wabash Middle School 6^th Grade Choir at 10:30, directed by Mark Nevil;
• 11:30; O. J. Singers directed by Jennifer Denney and Dual Immersion students singing a Spanish song led by teacher Rafa Camaras.
• 1:00; The Southwood Jr./Sr. High Swing Band, dlrected by Lindsay Knee,
• Afterwards the workshop and performance by the Fascinating Rhythm Band.

Student dancers from Wabash Valley Dance Theater will perform in Ford Theater at 10:00.

Students from private music studios will perform in the Honeywell Room during the morning. Students of these teachers with performances times are:

• 9:00 Eileen Dye and Kris Stephens
• 10:00 Judy Ward at 9:30, Peggy Coppler
• 10:30 Jennifer Denney and Sarah Okuly
• 11:00 Mary and Ruth Berkebile

Student Art Projects

Student art projects will be on display in the lobby at Honeywell Center. Schools and teachers presenting art work are:

• Home-Schooled Art Class – Charly Dye, Judy Ward, and guest teachers
• L. H. Carpenter Center – Lori Render
• Metro North Elementary – Katy Gray
• O. J. Neighbours Elementary – Aubrey Davis
• St. Bernard Elementary – Susan Stewart
• Sharp Creek Elementary – Katy Gray
• Southwood Elementary – Erica Tyson
• Wabash Middle School – Krystyna Martin.

Winning poster designs submitted by area students will be framed and on display. This year’s winners are

• Madeline Cordes, grade 8, Home-Schooled Art – Charly Dye, Judy Ward, and guest teachers
• Emaline Cordes, grade 11, Home-Schooled Art– Charly Dye, Judy Ward, and guest teachers
• Tytus Dawes, grade 2, Metro North Elementary – Katy Gray, teacher
• Faith Krom, grade 7, Northfield Jr./Sr, High – Adam Zwiebel, teacher
• Mackenzie Southwick, grade 8, Northfield Jr./Sr. High – Adam Zwiebel, teacher
• Augie Higgins, grade 6, St. Bernard Elementary – Susan Stewart, teacher

 

Our thanks

FAME (Foundation for Art and Music in Education) sponsors art activities for students in elementary and junior high/middle schools in northern Indiana. The parent organization is in Fort Wayne with headquarters in the Auer Center for Art and Culture in downtown Fort Wayne. Wabash’s festival is supported by grants and donations and is expected to be self-supporting in its finances. The local planning committee, headed by Judy Ward, appreciates the support of various foundations, businesses and individuals for their monetary donations to FAME.

Thanks to our Festival Sponsors – the Major supporters this year include:

• Ford Meter Box Foundation, Inc.
• Honeywell Foundation, Inc.
• Wabash Cannonball Chili for Charity
• Wabash Chapter of Kappa, Kappa, Kappa
• Wabash County United Fund