A little more than three decades ago, the Santa Maria Arts Council—then headed by Nat Fast—began an annual community arts event, the Autumn Arts Festival, at Veterans Memorial Park. The festival became a yearly celebration of the various art forms and artists that find a home in Santa Maria and on the Central Coast.
The city of Santa Maria took over the organization of the event many years ago, changing venues to the downtown McClelland Street Corridor betwixt the Santa Maria Library and Abel Maldonado Community Youth Center, and adding Grapes and Grains to the title of the festival in celebration of the local wine harvest and craft beer industry. No longer featuring a car show as it has in previous years—the event needed to make room for more art demonstrations and vendors—the Autumn Arts Grapes and Grains Festival is now all about the founding inspiration for the event, explained Dennis Smitherman, Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department and P.L.A.Y. Inc. recreation supervisor.
“This year the festival is in honor of Nat D. Fast, and we are really excited about that,” Smitherman said. “When Nat and the original group got together to start the Autumn Arts, it was really focused on the arts and being interactive for the community and families, so in that spirit, we are focusing on that this year.”
Nat Fast, who passed away last year, was a founding member of the Santa Maria Arts Council along with local arts luminaries like PCPA founding director Donovan Marley. Fast and others saw the need for an overall arts organization in Santa Maria that would help support the arts as well as make them more visible in the city.
The Autumn Arts Festival was started with the intent of bringing everything in the local arts community to one place at one time, as well as to provide locals with a chance to get creative themselves or learn about certain media. Many local artists will be showing their work while also demonstrating their craft.
“This is the greatest showcase we have community-wide for art and artists and people who enjoy both,” said current Santa Maria Arts Council President Craig Shafer. “You have all these layers of art that you just don’t get in one place at one time in Santa Maria.”
In past years, the festival has included a one-day art show, but this year, Smitherman explained, the Santa Maria Public Library is hosting a month-long Autumn Arts fine arts exhibition. During the festival, the library’s Shepard Hall will be open so locals can view the show, which will include several works by Fast.
A chalk art expose will take place in the library’s Lavagnino plaza for artists aged 12 and older. In the vein of Grapes and Grain, a local beer and wine tasting event sponsored by the Noontime Kiwanis happens on the second level of the library’s parking structure. There will also be two stages, with one including live music by favorite local band Steppin’ Out and the other including shows for kids, a magician, and acoustic musicians and singers.
A recent addition to the festival is the Catchin’ Colors Fun Run, which was started last year. The fun run or walk event includes a mile-long path that starts and ends at the festival. Catchin’ Colors is so named due to the arcs of colorful powder blasted across the crowd of runners who are encouraged to wear white shirts, essentially turning the mass of runners into a traveling art piece.
“Nat Fast was a staple in our community and really touched lives through not just his coaching and teaching, but his artwork,” Smitherman said. “We wanted to remind people not just of the great work that he did, but the great work that all the artists in the area do.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne remembers Nat Fast fondly. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 2-9, 2014.
