The Black Arts Festival

Join us for the Black Arts Festival presented by Germanna Community College on Saturday. The Black Arts Festival will feature contextual arts, dance and live music performances from artists around the Fredericksburg area and beyond. Artists will be displaying and selling a wide variety of art in Market Square, and performers and musicians will be Market Square and Riverfront Park. This event is brought to you by the Fredericksburg Area Museum under the direction of Harambee 360 in partnership with Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation.

The Black Arts Festival has long historical ties to the City of Fredericksburg. In the late 1960s, Clarence Todd founded an experimental theater organization for area youth. Originally known as Shades of Gray, Harambee 360 officially became a chartered, non-profit corporation in November 1973. The name Harambee comes from a Swahili word, which means, “Let us pull together,” signifying unity. One of the organization’s most lasting contributions was Fredericksburg’s Black Arts Festival, founded in 1975. Over the next forty decades, the Black Arts Festival showcased local artists, performers, and brought the community together.

In 2023, as part of the programming for the special exhibition, Seen: Viewing the Work of African American Artists of Fredericksburg, the Fredericksburg Area Museum offered the Fredericksburg Black Arts Festival- Revisited. FAM welcomed over a thousand people into Market Square to enjoy music, community, and African American culture. This year, the museum has partnered with the City of Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation for another iteration of the festival.