By Shannon McMahon

Join Wild Goose Creative, a relatively new arts organization, for its second annual New Year’s Festival. The four-day celebration will be hosted at the Creative's new arts space, 2491 Summit St., from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3.

“It’s exciting to have a big event in our new space. We want a lot of new people to come and meet each other," says Amanda Anderson, a volunteer with the group.

Wild Goose Creative was founded two years ago in Columbus by three couples who were all friends during their undergraduate years at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. Driven by a passion for the arts, they decided to form an organization that embraced art’s “wild goose-like” tendencies to be chaotic and exciting.

They chose Columbus as their base because of its distinctive arts flair.

"The founders wanted a place that already had a smaller arts scene, but somewhere with a lot of artists. And Columbus is the 'Indie Arts Capital of the World,'” says Anderson.

Guided by their four tenants of "Hospitality, Creativity, Community, and Education," Wild Goose gives Columbus artists a place to meet other local artists with a range of backgrounds, including visual arts, film, dance, music, culinary and writing. They also help these artists find helpful and practical resources for collaboration by creating an atmosphere conducive to inspiration and work.
“The regular events we do help to break down the walls between artists and audiences,” Anderson says. “We want to encourage their creativity and whatever events they want to do in our space.”

“Third Thursdays” offer artists from any discipline the opportunity to showcase a work-in-progress and receive feedback from an audience, while “Too Many Cooks” is a presentation by a local culinary artist. These events are open to the public.

This year’s New Year’s event will feature hands-on workshops for and by local artists and performances by Columbus Public Theatre, Writer’s Block Poetry, Common Shiner, The Andy Shaw Band and Hayseed, all throughout the course of four days. The workshops will span the concentrations of fashion and jewelry, cooking (with various tastings), decorating, architecture, and a screening of Studio 35, an original film.

For a complete schedule of the four-day New Year’s bash or more information about Wild Goose Creative,  visit www.wildgoosecreative.com.