Tacoma continues to build on its reputation as a center for glass art production and exhibition. But the city’s Glass Roots Arts Festival, which returns to downtown Tacoma Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., isn’t really designed to add to that reputation. In reality, the festival’s name is a “clever misnomer” that describes what is really a grass roots event that celebrates local art and artists from a wide range of disciplines.



The Glass Roots Arts Festival grew — in grass roots fashion — out of a disagreement between the City of Tacoma and representatives of the local arts community, explains festival coordinator, Houston S. Wimberly III.  In 2005, Tacoma arts community members — several hundred of them — gathered at downtown’s Temple Theater to discuss the city’s promotion of glass art to the near exclusion of other forms of art, and what could be done about it.



The nonprofit group Tacoma Arts Community emerged from that initial brainstorming session. Since it was formed, the group has been finding ways to help local artists connect with one another, as well as with the art-consuming public. As part of its outreach effort, the organization held the first “Glass Roots” festival in 2006. The festival continues to grow. This year, participants are being drawn from across the art, music and literary spectra. They range from painters to carvers, poets, dancers, graphic designers, actors, and, yes, glass blowers. Also, in keeping with this year’s festival theme, “Think Green,” artists who create works using recycled materials will be featured.



Wimberly is a Tacoma-based artist who spreads his interests among oil and acrylic painting, photography and poetry, among other fields. But will he be demonstrating some of his own techniques at the festival? Probably not, he admits. “I will be mostly running around.” However, he adds, “Since we’ll have live artists there, if I have an opportunity to get in some brush strokes, I will.”



This year’s festival site stretches between South 11th and 13th Streets, along Market and Court “D.” The space will be filled with a mix of art and food booths. Sharing the space will be an assortment of live art demonstrators and performers. Chalk artists will be creating works on the festival site sidewalks, and there will be technique demonstrations by participating painters and clay artists, among others. Such demonstrations, Wimberly hopes, will help attendees better understand “how the work comes about.”



Live graffiti is another possible addition to the mix, although Wimberly doesn’t have a firm commitment. “They’re kind of a fickle crowd,” he says of the local wall artists. (Oh, well, graffiti needs to be spontaneous, one would think.) 



Among other live events is a combination of live crocheting (yes, crocheting) and dance, in which a pair of dancers will be “crocheted upon.” And once linked by multi-colored strands of yarn, the looped-together dancers will perform their portion of the piece.



Live music is also on the menu. Some six Tacoma and nearby area bands have been booked to perform at the festival. The performers include Library Science, Umber Sleeping, Beehive, the Kim Archer Band, Deborah Page and Can-U.



“It’s going to be very lively,” Wimberly predicts.



And also very inclusive. “We wanted to make sure that we had the representation of the Tacoma art community,” Wimberly explains, “so we could be an outreach for that community.”



To help ensure the fullest possible participation by the range of artists who call Tacoma home, this year, festival organizers opted to drop vendor fees altogether.



So, ultimately, what purpose does an all-arts festival that is free for both artists and members of the public serve? One purpose, Wimberly suggests, is to inform Tacomans about the variety and quality of art being produced on the home front. Another is to help local artists develop a sense of identity as an arts community as they also develop a sense of the financial potential in professional art production. The Tacoma Glass Roots Arts Festival is intended to serve both groups — both art producers and art consumers. And, as an event-based venue, it can also help to develop a sense of Tacoma as an arts destination.



“We’re discovering that we can be our own art scene,” Wimberly believes. “We’re discovering that we don’t have to depend on Seattle or anyone else.”



[Glass Roots Arts Festival, Sunday, Aug. 24, noon to 6 p.m., free, South 11th and 13th Streets, along Market and Court D, Tacoma, myspace.com/grassrootsartsfestival]