2002 Festival of the Masters
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A Lesser-Known Disney Tradition?
There is a festival, held annually at the Walt Disney World Resort that does not attract the headlines of its glitzy and glamorous counterparts such as the SuperStar Soap Weekend and the Food & Wine Festival.
Twenty seven years ago, the then-sleepy Walt Disney World Village debuted the Festival of the Masters amongst its low chalet-style shops and restaurants, nestled amongst trees at the heart of the Lake Buena Vista community whose quiet and secluded life could not be in greater contrast to the fantasy and exuberance of the only theme park at the time, the Magic Kingdom. The Festival was designed as a showcase of local art, crafts and culture.
Originally, just a collection of temporary tents littered between the Dockside and the bungalows that housed such establishments as Harringtons and the Gourmet Pantry. This year, the Festival finally accepted that the Downtown Disney complex is in three distinct districts and expanded to take in Pleasure Island and the West Side, with the focus firmly on the latter.
This year’s showcase was held over three days in mid-November. This year’s entrants to the Festival were planted on every conceivable inch of space along the West Side under white tents from the AMC megaplex to the larger, more permanent tent of the Cirque du Soleil show.
More than 150 award-winning artists from across the country displayed their work throughout Downtown Disney West Side. For the first time ever, there was approximately $40,000 in prize money awarded. In order to participate, all artists must have received a primary award in a juried art festival within the last three years.
Judging this year’s entries were Maurine Littleton, owner of a prominent Washington, D.C., art gallery that bears her name; “landscape inventor�? Dennis Masback; and abstract expressionist painter and professor John L. Moore. They selected first, second and third place winners in nine categories: painting; watercolor; graphics, drawing, collage and printmaking; photography; sculpture; clay; glass; leather, fibre and paper, wood; and jewelry and non-sculptural metalwork.
First place winners in each category received $1,500; second place, $1,000; and third place, $750. Honors also included a $3,000 Best of Show award, 20 $300 Awards of Merit, and works purchased for the Disney Corporate Collection.