The LGBT Arts Festival originally planned to take place at the Know Theatre from Saturday, April 23 through Saturday, May 8 has been postponed due to a lack of resources. This is the second postponement of the festival which was first planned to take place in October 2009.
“We are dedicated to the idea and the realization of the LGBT Arts Festival,” said Eric Vosmeier, Managing Director at the Know Theatre. “However, this Festival was conceived over 18 months ago, when the Know Theatre was in a very different position and frankly had a staff that was larger by five.”
The second conception to take place in the coming weeks was planned to coincide with the production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. The two-part play will take place as originally planned and run through May 8th.
“I’ve been looking at Know Theatre’s available resources, and while financial consideration is certainly one of the concerns, for me the most important thing is the preservation of our staff as a resource,” Vosmeier described. “We need to ensure the success of every single production we present. At this moment, that means that we’ll have to postpone the LGBT Arts Festival to ensure that we’re able to fully realize our production of Angels in America and the 7th Annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival.”
Staff at the Know Theatre note that a visual art exhibit of the LGBT Arts Festival will go forward as scheduled and will open at CS13 during Final Friday (map) on April 30, 2010. The exhibit will run through May 15 and feature work of prominent LGBT artists like Jan Wandrag, Gio Black Peter, Matthew Stradling, Zachari Logan, Scooter LaForge, Scott Hug, James Huctwith, Jeremiah Degrandpre, David DeWitt, and Matthew Dayler who is also serving as the curator for the exhibit.
As for the rest of the festival, Vosmeier stated that the plan now is to host the festival in October 2011 to coincide with National Coming Out Day on October 11th.
“I want to see a Festival that truly speaks to the LGBT community,” said Vosmeier. “This community is large and diverse with dramatically different economic, racial, educational, and political backgrounds. I want time to explore options, to collect ideas from the community and to seek out performers, artists, filmmakers who speak to that diversity.”
