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Marco art fest to feature local artists: Festival will showcase amateur and professional artwork side by side. If the organizers of the Left Bank Art Fest have it their way, the waterfront of the Esplanade Shoppes overlooking Smokehouse Bay in Marco will feel a little like Paris on Saturday.

The Left Bank Art Fest, organized by the Marco Island Foundation for the Arts, will feature original fine art by local artists March 22. The festival will run from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Esplanade located at 800 N. Collier Blvd. in Marco.

Nancy Rhodes, the chairperson for the festival, said the event is the first of its kind to be put on by the foundation.

Original paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography and more will be on display along the waterfront and elsewhere at the Esplanade.

Award-winning painter Stephen Muldoon will be one of the artists featured at the festival, said Rhodes.

But the festival is aimed at more than just professional artists. Left Bank Art Fest will feature work from the kind of artists that Rhodes calls “Sunday painters” — non-professional artists who craft their work in their spare time.

The festival will divide its artists into three categories: youth (children and students through high school), amateur and professional.

Saturday is an opportunity for artists to be in a show with little pressure.

“It is an effort to have fun for local artists,” said Rhodes.

The entry fee for artists is $50 for amateurs and professionals and $20 for youth. The festival is free to the public. All proceeds will go to the foundation.

Many other regional art shows have an entry fee that costs artist as much as $250, and the artists must give 30 to 40 percent of their sales back to the show, said Rhodes. At the Left Bank Art Fest, the artists will keep all of what they sell of their art after the entry fee.

The mission of the Marco Island Foundation for the Arts is to promote art in public places. The organization has been engaged in that mission since 2003.

One of the chief accomplishments of the foundation is its scholarship program that awards Marco students excelling in visual, literary and performing art.

Rhodes said she hopes this festival will become an annual event in Marco Island.

For the foundation, Saturday’s art festival is a good opportunity for both artists and the community to share in the celebration of art.

Said Rhodes, “We’re just putting art out there and letting everyone have a good time.”

For more information visit the Foundation Web site: www.marcoarts.org or call the office 389-1603.