In a year of mergers, Arts United is bringing together several canceled Fort Wayne festivals into one event. The new Taste of the Arts festival brings together food from the former Taste of Fort Wayne with entertainment and local talent of the Arts Unite event held during Three Rivers Festival. Like the old Franke Park Fine Arts Festival, there will be hands-on activities and the event will be held at different venues similar to an Arts Crawl

The Taste of the Arts festival will be held at the Arts United Plaza, Friemann Square and the surrounding four-block area in downtown Fort Wayne. Festival date is August 29, 2009 from 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.. Each year this event will serve as a fundraiser for emerging needs—this year monies raised will fund a new arts education grant program for schools.

The festival is free and open to the public. Food and beverage tickets are $1 each. There will be three stages of entertainment and local area restaurant booths, art exhibits and sale, and hands-on activities for all ages, plus much more.

Along with Emley Design Group, other Gold Sponsors include Parkview Health and Fort Wayne Metals. Silver Sponsors include Wane-TV 15, Lutheran Health Network, and Mimi and Ian Rolland. Bronze sponsors include Lupke Rice Insurance and Financial Services, Indiana Michigan Power, OmniSource, and the Waterfield Foundation. Media sponsor is WAJI-Majic 95.1.

Updated information can be found by frequently visiting www.TasteoftheArtsFortWayne.org.