Festival of the Arts

Festival of the Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan is one of the United States' largest volunteer-driven community arts festivals, and takes place over three days in the first full week of June every year. The event exists to promote West Michigan arts and artists with performance stages for musical acts and installations for local artists -- it has run annually since 1970.

The event was inspired by Alexander Calder's art installation "Le Grande Vitesse" (better known locally as "The Calder"), which sits permanently in downtown Grand Rapids. Calder himself was a large fan of local art festivals, and supported the idea -- providing original artwork to be used as the festival's sun logo.

Festival of the Arts includes an Arts Competition underwritten by the Pamella and Daniel DeVos foundation, and hosted by Kendall College of Art and Design.

In 2003 the Festival was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress by United States Representative Vern Ehlers.

In 2005, Festival of the Arts received the Govorners award for Most Outstanding Cultural Organization.