WICHITA FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS

Wichita Festival of the Arts

The Starship of Talent

Help keep our community free event going!

 

First and Final Fridays are at Douglas Social Club

2518 East Douglas Wichita Kansas

 

Enjoy being outside or inside while walking around visiting the many local vendor booths that will be on-site to showcase our community's talents in arts and entertainment. Enjoy the music, take in a performance, enjoy local films, or peruse the booths at this bi-annual festival.

Photographer Chris Stark

Wichita Festival of the Arts is accepting gracious donations from admirers of the event!

History

After moving to Wichita in the late 70's, William Stofer pondered if he could build an art community in Wichita. Having realized there was not a big annual event in the area, like where he grew up (Southern California). William kept trying to replicate a big artist collective in this area of the county, but life got in the way. 

William along with his artistic family continued to make their art and tried to sell it however they could. Many years later he revisited the idea of a bi-annual event that would rival OKC, Denver, Lawrence, and Kansas City.

Enter Robbie Maxwell and a couple supporting artists, Mike Fallier and Tony S. Christenson. Together they brain stormed ways in which this development could happen. The first big event took place at a renovated school that served as a gallery and artists work space, this was named Studio School.

The first Wichita Festival of the Arts event was planned in 2020 but the pandemic stalled all hopes of hosting an event, but as we progressed into the spring of 2021 all was a go! Wichita Park & Recreation helped William get the ball rolling in creating what is planned as a growing arts and cultural event. History has begun!

What We Are Today

WFOTA has grown to over 200 artists involved with our events, and we are the largest collective in Kansas. We encourage folks to join us in events, board members, volunteers and staff. (Membership is free) By working together we have power in numbers to fulfill our dream of creating a destination for visitors to come see what we are about. We are the biggest free to attend free to vend gathering in the country, and our ethos is to help artists present their talent, from music to visual to performers.

We create large biannual events to first and final Fridays, to mini events throughout the season. We have a magazine to showcase talent, workshops, benefits and so much more. As of 2021 we have merged with local special event creators to expand our Starship of talent events, including TallGrass Films. We are in the process of creating a huge three day event at a local lake with awesome sound, food, art, and fun. The final plan is to have a full time location with small buildings for the artists, and to have a dedicated location for tourists to come see us (Think Sawdust Festival in California) kind of an art and entertainment destination.

THIS YEARS FALL EVENT!

OCTOBER FEST 2022! MARDI GRAS MEETS HALLOWEEN!

Organic Publishing's Festival Logo

The aptly named Wichipelli was created by William A. Stofer in 2018 as a creative alternative to the over used Keeper image. The Wichipelli represents Wichita's arts and entertainment scene, to stylize it and make it different than most images of Kokopelli. Wichipelli is only depicted as a front on view. Wichipelli wears a stylized Wichita flag as a toga, plays a green flute, and in many drawings it is pictured with a Hogan tattoo. The Sun Hogan image is an extension of the flag's sun image created by Charles McAllister who created the city's flag. This is also the image that Wichipelli has tattooed on his arm. (William's Grandfather was Hopi, and taught him the significance of the iconic  Kokopelli image)

Art By William A. Stofer

Welcome Cosplay

Please help us welcome BadAsh cosplay, and average Asian cosplay to festival of the arts. Both groups are well known for their amazing work and excellent cosplay skills throughout the community. We are so very excited to have them join us! Let them be a grand example of what it means to find something you love and excel! Be sure to read Stephanie L. Nash's article on Cosplay in the next Festival magazine.

Sponsors

Scheduled Films

Film and Food is now part of the festival, featuring local independent film makers and the youth film makers

Artist Support Group                              

Organic Publishing  

TallGrass Film Association                

                                                                                                          

Questions? Contact Us

Email: wichitaartfest@gmail.com

Phone: 316.992.7765

William A. Stofer  Event Founder 

Stephanie J. Nash Director of operations 

Meet The Team