Founders Club

Starting at 12 p.m. more than 50 artists, performers and participating agencies will join kids of all ages in celebrating the arts and especially horses at this year’s festival. We’ll sing, dance, sculpt, paint, perform create and have fun in Downtown Schenectady on the streets outside City Hall if weather permits. If rain should fall, or air quality is too low to be outside, we’ll move inside to the absolute best rain site of the Capital Region—the GE Theatre, Fenimore Gallery, Golub Arcade, Guild Room, Robb Alley and even spill over to under the Marquees at both the front and back entrances of Proctors at 432 State Street. The Oneida Middle School Guitar Club kicks off 4 hours of free entertainment at Jay Square that includes ballet and Bollywood-style dancers, the Pan African Youth Orchestra, the Hamilton Hill Arts Center fashion show, a circus artist and Chris Thomas brings the Ongwe’hon:Wehkah dancers for a grand finale.

Joan Gould, Janet Hutchison, the late Karen B. Johnson and the late Eli I. Taub founded the first Kids Arts Festival in June 1994 as a free outdoor arts festival for families in response to devastating state aid education cuts in the early 1990s. 

Even though state aid to education cuts were restored, the popularity of that first festival guaranteed it would continue, and thus the Kids Arts Festival has become an enduring tradition, usually the first Saturday in June. 

During the 2020 pandemic summer, artists and performers provided four one-hour segments of a virtual festival. These on-line segments can still be seen through Open Stage Media’s YouTube channel by searching for “Kids Arts Festival Schenectady 2020.”

Due to continued pandemic restrictions, in 2021, the date of the festival was Sept. 25. But the one constant that everyone can depend on, is that all performances and activities are free thanks to the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor, the New York State Legislature and these members of our Founders Club:

Want to help fund art supplies for kids?

Gifts of any size are welcome and are tax-deductible. Make checks payable to Kids Arts Festival and mail to 432 State St., Schenectady NY 12305. The sponsor of the event is 440 State Street, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) organization dba the ElectriCity Arts District.

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