RALEIGH COUNTY, WV (WOAY) – The Bex Art Festival is returning for its seventh year, highlighting Beckley’s immense artistic and creative talent.
“We started the festival kind of as a way to pull all this together and take a focused period in the summer to work collaboratively and get on the same page with a little bit of luck,” said Bex Arts Co-founder/Vice President Shane Pierce. “I’ve seen it to be true, that spirit of camaraderie develops and continues through the year also.”
As Beckley gears up for the festival, Pierce says it’s great to see people networking, connecting, and collaborating.
“If you want to get your hands on something or just sit and listen to music, that’s an option too,” the Bex co-founder said. “We’ll have food trucks and things like that. It’s a cool, outdoor creative event people can come to.”
When people think of Beckley, Pierce says a lot of things come to mind, and the second or third thing may not be the arts.
“But we have such a diverse community and amount and type of artists here doing unique and powerful work,” he said. “I think that’s part of the feeling — pushing that into people’s minds of like, Beckley is an arts city too, on top of the other types of cities it is.”
The Bex Art Festival will include a variety of artisans and vendors, genres and styles — you may see something you like for purchase or just take a look around.
“You don’t have to spend any money if you don’t want to,” said Pierce. “It’s free admission, but if you see something at the vendors that you like, we encourage people, of course, to put a few bucks in their hands for their hard work.”
