Artpark ringing in 50th season

May 30—This season will be unlike any other for Artpark.

On top of its slate of musical performances, art programs, and other performing arts, 2023 marks the Lewiston attraction's 50th season of providing art for the community.

"Artpark has gone through three distinct phases of its 50-year existence," said current president Sonia Clark, finding it interesting how the state park has been able to reinvent itself drastically over the years. For its first 20 years, programming was mainly opera, ballet, musical theater, symphonies and its visual arts program.

Due to funding cuts in the early 1990s, Artpark was restructured into a partnership with New York State Parks and the non-profit Artpark & Company, who had to figure out how to make the programs sustainable. President George Osborne set up Tuesday in the Park, which led to the venue now being known for hosting concerts.

This latest phase of its existence, since Clark took over in 2015, featured expanded artistic programming to have new kinds of music performances in different spaces around the park.

"It's an interesting phase, and a big date for us," Clark said. "50 years is a lot and not quite a lot for an institution."

For its concerts, 30 shows will take place across the park's different stages, including returning acts Styx, Ben Folds, Barenaked Ladies, Buddy Guy and the Avett Brothers.

This season will feature two North American premieres, one of which will return Artpark to his operatic roots. The Spanish company La Fura Dels Baus will stage a production of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, on July 29, with help from the Buffalo Philharmonic and several local dance groups. Over 200 people will be on stage as the performance takes place.

The other is from French collective Cirque Inextremiste, whose Aug. 27 show "Exit" features performers doing stunts while tethered to a hot air balloon. Clark said this performance is a way of celebrating the park because of its outdoor nature and doing something on a grand scale.

Outside of the concerts it puts on, Artpark spends more than $1.2 million on subsidized family programs. Less than 4% of its funding comes from New York state, the rest of it coming from fundraising, grants, and event attendance.