What is street art? Give up? If so, the Sedona Posse Grounds Hub has the answer.

Lead by new assistant manager Talya Reynolds, the Hub plans to host a trio of events as part of its Sedona Street Arts Festival Series. Events are scheduled for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 25, July 30 and Aug. 27 at Posse Grounds Park.

“The idea is to promote cultural growth, encourage youth in the arts and engage the community in a way that it hasn’t been engaged before,” she said.

Reynolds said one of her inspirations for an event like this was patterned after one she attended in Denver.

“I was a frequenter of the festival called the Big Wonderful, which was a community event by donation that had live arts, live music, art vendors, clothing vendors, food vendors — everything,” she said. “It was such a cool way to spend my Sunday …. Youth has a ton of opportunity to get in trouble in Sedona rather than do fun, productive, engaging and artistic. You can only hike so much, see so many movies and find someone’s house to spend the day at.”

Reynolds said Kayt Pearl, a local poet, musician and co-director of Arts Leadership International, had stated that it would be nice to somehow include the skate park community to do performance work at Sedona Hub. It was one of the first projects general manager Kate Hawkes approached Reynolds about leading.

“We lack a lot of culture and support for other types of arts outside of Southwestern and spiritual,” Reynolds said. “So, what about youth? What about promoting an
environment where youth are celebrated and encouraged to explore various art forms and have a space to showcase it?”

Even beyond showcasing art or expressing art, Sedona as a whole doesn’t have many engaging cultural events that are more youth-oriented, she said. And, even though the event is for everyone, it is focused on youth.

“We wanted to show the young adults in this town that there is a community ready to get behind them and provide more awesome things for them to do with their time, especially during the summer,” she said.

Reynolds said the concept began with skateboarders and performance artists. They eventually expanded, bringing in younger live artists that are “outside the vernacular” of what is commonly seen and showcased in Sedona.

“The reasons why are based in the same reasoning of how it came about — showcasing other works of art and street arts that often carry misconceptions about their nature,” she said.

“Like skateboarding as an art form. It’s not just deviant kids marking up our community. These are kids who have shown interest in a sport that is also an art form, it requires the body, movement, critical thinking, exploration and risk.”

The festival will showcase a variety of artistic expression including live music, hip hop and break dancing, plein air painting, graffiti art, slam poetry and skateboarding.

Reynolds said even though there were a few bumps in the road when organizing the event, now that it’s coming to fruition, everyone associated with it, starting with the Sedona Parks and Recreation Department, are excited.

“The response from my peers, Sedona residents and people in the surrounding area has been overwhelming and tells us that we are on the right path,” she said. “Just to give you a glimpse, our event on Facebook within the first day of posting received over 5,000 views and engagement. People want this and we are ready to bring it in a big way.”

If successful, Reynolds said they’d like to extend it past summer.

“We want it to encompass more and more arts, more local vendors, musicians and the like,” she said.

For the full lineup of performers, visit sedonahub.org and check out this week’s The Scene.