Ring in spring with lots of arts events and fun activities in Merced

Celebrations of warmer weather, blooming flowers and self-expression are set throughout the day on Saturday in downtown Merced, and it’s all free.

The city is teaming with the Merced Main Street Association for the Spring Festival from noon to 5 p.m. in Bob Hart Square, which is at Main and Canal streets.

The downtown farmers market will be open during the festival, which offers live music, egg hunting, face painting, games and more, according to organizers.

Then, with Earth Day around the corner, Merced’s Art Hop organizers settled on an animal awareness theme for the activities from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday in and around Main Street from Martin Luther King Jr. Way to N Street.

Get in on the art by making clay animals, dot painting on rocks, building birdhouses out of craft sticks and other projects, according to organizers.

Close to 30 businesses will host about 50 artists in the quarterly celebration of art, music and fashion meant to bring people downtown to visit local shops and eateries.

Thrashcore band Decimate the Opposition will perform inside Gottschalk’s Music, as will Allan Spencer and Atlas Infinity, according to the schedule.

And, the Merced Multicultural Arts Center is planning two all-day projects on Saturday.

The first is by Spanish artist Olga Diego, who is a UC Merced artist in residence. Called “Drawings in the Sky,” she’s looking for the community’s help to make an experimental flying inflatable sculpture, according to organizers.

The other project is “Alchemy” by artist Dwight Wigley, who will place paintings from any visitors in a structure he designed to create a collective work of art that will be displayed, for a short time, at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center, 645 W. Main St.

Each participant will be photographed with their artwork for a book to be produced after the event, according to organizers.

Both of those art projects open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday.

For more on the projects, call 209-388-1090 or email director@artsmerced.org.

More on Art Hop, go to www.mercedarthop.org.

This story was originally published April 12, 2017 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Ring in spring with lots of arts events and fun activities in Merced."