Liberty Center to bring back popular events from 2011

In 2011, the Liberty Center Association for the Arts served up its most robust schedule in recent memory, and it plans to continue that momentum in 2012. The three biggest newcomers of 2011 will return: The First Saturdays Youth Arts Program from July through December, the Queen of the Prairies Festival of the Arts in September and the Battle of the Bands in December.

The most notable new event on the 2012 schedule is a June presentation by Betty Hopkins about her humanitarian travels to Africa.

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party for parents, grandparents and children will return on April 21 after taking a year off. The formerly annual February gospel event, last held in 2010, is again absent from the schedule in 2012. Treasurer Courtney Wilken said the LCAA is looking to book gospel concerts on other dates.

Returning annual events include the Art Auction on Jan. 28, plus the regular lineup of art exhibits in the Loft Gallery. The January exhibit will be the Young Masters Art Show featuring Smith-Cotton Junior High students.

As for the Liberty Center’s centerpiece, the theatrical productions, “The Full Monty” will be staged in March, “Caught in the Net” is scheduled for April and May, and the youth theater will stage “The Anansi Stories” in June.

The fall theater schedule will be announced in January.

“I am pleased with what we have been able to offer,” said Wilken about the year gone by. “We’re hitting more of our population that maybe hadn’t been involved with the Liberty Center before.”

Among the 2012 schedule, Wilken is especially excited about the June lineup, noting that Hopkins’ presentations are “awesome.”

Liberty Center director Terri Ballard, who had her interim label removed in October, wrote in an email that “Hopkins will discuss her humanitarian travels to Africa and how she helped a young man who grew up in the slums and is now receiving his PhD.”

Continuing the Africa theme in June, Kathy Menefee will show a photo exhibit of her travels to the Dark Continent in the Loft Gallery and the youth theater will present “The Anansi Stories,” a play based on African folklore.

Also in June, the LCAA will exhibit work by Sedalia artist Dustin Schmidt, who combines photography with painting.

The second annual Queen of the Prairies Festival of the Arts will be on Sept. 22, and once again the LCAA will team up with Sedalia Downtown Development Inc. to  put on the one-day event.

SDDI administrator Meg Liston said she hopes to add more music to the festival this year, but only if the event falls on a different day than the annual downtown motorcycle rally.

“We’re planning for a bigger year than the first,” Liston said. “We’ll continue with the drawings of chalk art and the make-and-take items for the kids, and we’ll do more artist vendor booths. We had 20 this year, and they were all really pleased with the response.

“We will try to tie in more music. We didn’t get a lot of musicians this year. Hopefully they can play at different venues around the downtown area, maybe two-hour shows.”