WILLIAMSBURG — Artistic offerings and installations by the Williamsburg Artists Group are being featured during the Busch Gardens Summer of Wonder.
According to the park, the new event is a blend of art, music, and food alongside the its many attractions. Busch Gardens Williamsburg has partnered with local Virginia artisan groups to present art installations throughout the property, including custom murals designed and created specifically for the park.
One of thosae groups that Busch Gardens partnered with for this event is the Williamsburg Artists Group (WAG). Founded in 2018, the group has grown to 67 area artists with a mission to create new opportunities for the community to view, appreciate, and purchase artwork and for artists to exhibit their work locally.
WAG artists have been creating a community mural for visitors to paint, painted a LOVE installation, and are selling artwork in the exhibit space, all taking place at the WAG pavilion with additional plein air painting around the park.
Laurie Rokutani, the spokesperson for WAG, said Busch Gardens had reached out to WAG through the email on their Facebook page asking if any of the artists would be interested in participating in Busch Garden’s summer program since it was being focused on art.
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WAG art for sale on display. (Photo/WAG)
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Summer of Wonder Mural. (Jillian Appel/WYDaily)
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Love Sign. (Jillian Appel/WYDaily)
“We got together in a big group to brainstorm what we wanted to do,” said Rokutani, “Some people were really interested in plein air painting because that’s what they loved, and Melody thought that would be a really great idea to spread people all around the park and be able to interact with people while we’re doing what we do, paint.”
“Then someone came up with the idea of doing a LOVE sign because those are all over Virginia and they’re supposed to be a Virginia thing and the whole Summer of Wonder is meant to focus on Virginia, so we decided to go with that,” Rokutani added.
The idea for the mural is to allow WAG to interact with guests and get them involved as well.
“This has been an opportunity for WAG artists to really come together and do something together as a project. Usually, we just do shows and we don’t have a whole lot of opportunities to interact so this has been fabulous for that,” Rokutani expressed.
Busch Garden’s Summer of Wonder will continue through Aug. 11 with the members of WAG. The pavilion is located in the Oktoberfest area across from Verbolten.
The group’s next art show will be Oct. 11-12 at Burton Parish House. For more information visit the official WAG Facebook page and for more about the Summer of Wonder, visit the official Busch Gardens website.
