IF YOU BEMOAN a lack of culture and arts in Charles County then you don’t want to miss the 15th Annual River Artsfest, to take place Saturday June 9th at the Village Green in Indian Head. 

Crammed into seven hours will be able folk singing, storytelling, and dancing as well as sales of paintings and jewelry, to name a few items.

Barry Louis Polisar is a singer and storyteller, and you don’t want your child to miss his performances. How often does your child get to hear a story by the person who actually penned the story or a song by the person who wrote the song? Polisar has several published books and he has performed at The White House, The Smithsonian and The Kennedy Center.

Homegrown rockers Nanjemoy Creek Boys (NCB) will be jamming out, sharing their eclectic style they describe as many flavors which include jazz, funk, blues and polka!

If you have a desire for handmade jewelry, Jennifer E. Crum makes jewelry accented with sea glass she has collected from the Potomac River and Janet Davis can sate your craving for fused glass pieces. You will find pottery by Michelle R. West, paintings by Mary Sokol and woodcarving by Libushe Zorin.

Even the sci-fi geek is not left out of this arts festival because Farragut Films will be present at their booth.  Starship Farragut is an independent film series based on the original series of Star Trek and based on the crew of the Constitutions Class Starship the U.S.S. Farragut.   

The Charles County Arts Alliance was founded in 1987 and organized A Touch of the Arts in 1992, which was the first countywide all-day festival. At the time, the festival was held in the mall at St. Charles Towne Center in Waldorf but in 1998 the festival moved to Cobb Island and was held outdoors and renamed Island Artsfest.

In 2001 the location was again moved, this time to Village Green in Indian Head and has remained there since. River Artsfest became the newly adopted name, inspired by musician and environmentalist Tom Wisner – mentioned here on the National Geographic website – who has long been influenced artistically by life on the Chesapeake. 

In that vein, naturally you will find exhibits by several organizations including environmental groups such as Conservancy for Charles County and Port Tobacco River Conservancy.

You can find a full list of the vendors, performers, organizations and events as well as maps and a schedule at the CCAA River Artsfest page.

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Heather Bartlett is TheBayNet.com’s Waldorf and Arts Correspondent.
To contact her about this article, Waldorf issues or Arts events comment below or email

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