After 10-days of exciting arts-related performances, hands-on workshops, readings and gallery shows, the LoKo Arts Festival at SUNY Potsdam ended on Sunday May 5. The support was tremendous with record attendance and involvement from the North Country community.

This was extremely meaningful to the SUNY Potsdam students and local artists who showcased their incredible talent during the LoKo Festival. And the many visiting artists who traveled to our area to take part in the Festival received a warm North Country welcome.

This year, LoKo featured many co-sponsored events and brought both the campus and the community together to experience the arts together. Downtown businesses hosted SUNY Potsdam student events, showcased the work of local artists and helped promote the LoKo Festival particularly for the new LoKo Downtown Day on April 27.

A tremendous thank you to 3 Bears Gluten Free Bakery, Brick & Mortar Music, Jernabi Coffeehouse, Maple Run Emporium, Maxfield’s, Step-it-Out Dance Studio and Soul Waffle. A special thank you to business owners Pam and Larry Hazen who generously offered up several downtown spaces ensuring all artists had a dry place to work or perform out of the rain.

Additional thanks to Allison and Jeremy Carney for their work coordinating the downtown day. Lastly, thank you to Lowe’s Home Improvement for donating building material for student art projects.

Many organizations were involved with Festival programming or hosted arts-events

including Cinema 10, Community Performance Series, Potsdam Chamber of Commerce, Potsdam Public Library, North Country Children’s Museum, North Country Public Radio, St. Lawrence University and SLC Arts. Special thanks to the Village of Potsdam, specifically the Department of Public Works, for hanging our LoKo banners throughout downtown. Thank you for your support of the arts in our community.

Once again, our media sponsor NCPR provided wonderful on-air promotion and interviewed visiting artists. In addition, David Sommerstein of The Beat Authority hosted our kick-off event with music and dancing. Thank you!

The LoKo Arts Festival is made possible by Festival founders, Kathy and Don Lougheed ’54 and we are grateful for their support and all it has brought to our campus and community.

With much appreciation to all involved,

Katie Deuel

LoKo Festival director, SUNY Potsdam