The Vandergrift Improvement Program is seeking wellness and therapy organizations to participate in this year’s Vandergrift ArtFest, an annual arts festival scheduled for July 25.

The program is looking for 12-step groups, massage therapists, psychologists or other wellness professionals to operate informational booths in honor of this year’s theme, “Take Your Broken Heart, Turn it Into Art.”

“This year, we really decided to do something a little different with our theme,” said Lisa Dormire, chairwoman of VIP’s ArtFest committee. “We want to look at the ways people use art to heal.”

Dormire said the committee wanted to embrace art as a means of therapy or relief in times of stress or depression — something she feels is prominent in the struggling small communities in the region.

“We have faced, in towns like Vandergrift and all across depressed areas in Western Pennsylvania, a lot of broken-heartedness,” she said, citing drug overdoses, economic decline and political division.

In previous years, Dormire said the ArtFest has been very “vendor-focused,” catering to artists looking to sell their work. This year, the organizers are adding a gallery for artists interested in displaying their work, with no intentions of selling.

Marilee Kessler, organizations chair of the VIP, said this year’s theme is an exciting direction for the event.

“It’s just another take on life,” Kessler said. “Especially now that people are so concerned about being healthy. I think people are becoming much more aware of the necessity.”

The Vandergrift ArtFest also functions as an important fundraiser for the VIP, Kessler said, “which the VIP, in turn, invests in the community.”

In addition to the gallery and informational booths, the festival will include food, craft vendors and children’s activities. Music for the event has already been booked, Dormire said, including a line-up of local bands like Julie & the 2nd Offenders and Miss Freddye.

Dormire said those interested in participating in the ArtFest can sign up through the event’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/VandergriftArtFest/.

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