About SAF - Salem Arts Festival

Art will heal us and help us recover from the challenges we have and continue to face. Arts and Culture are an integral part of day-to-day life in Salem and this annual festival has become a source of pride and revenue for hundreds of creative professionals and a major economic boost to the local community with over 6000 attendees annually. Through the COVID crisis the creative community has really stepped up to help us get through a lot of challenges and we want to find ways that we can support the creative community and contribute to the wellness of our City with the Festival as a platform and as an event.

SALEM ARTS FESTIVAL – JUNE 3-5

Celebrating arts, culture, and community in historic Salem, Massachusetts

SALEM, Mass. – Celebrate the arts, culture, creativity, and community at the 14th annual Salem Arts Festival June 3 through 5. This free and popular family-friendly event will feature a variety of art, music, dance, and theatre performances throughout downtown Salem.

Public activities include multiple outdoor performance areas, onsite art-making for all ages, local artisans and makers selling their creations, pop-up art exhibitions in businesses around town, a live mural slam on Artists Row, and a temporary public art installation. There are events for the whole family!

Presented in collaboration by Salem Main Streets and Creative Collective, this year’s event highlights the importance of the creative workforce and how it contributes to and stabilizes the local economy. Arts and culture are an integral part of day-to-day life in Salem. This annual festival has become a source of pride and revenue for hundreds of creative professionals and a major economic boost to the local community.

“Creating community has always been the underpinning purpose of the Salem Arts Festival, and our Salem community desperately needs to heal and build together again after the past year.” John Andrews, Founder, and Founder of Creative Collective stated, “The creative community has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic but throughout the crisis, this community of makers, artisans, performers, and creators were integral in keeping our families and communities hopeful, entertained, and inspired. As we start to come out of the crisis, we feel it is critically important to foster, support and amplify the creative workforce by providing them with paid opportunities.”

The SAF Organizing Committee:

Kylie Sullivan – Salem Main Streets

John Andrews, Creative Collective

Kate Babcock, Hunter Creative Labs

Jim Bostick, Salem Arts Association

Karen Gahagan, Salem State University

Julie Barry, City of Salem

Leslie Levesque, The Phoenix School

Betsy Miller, Salem State University

Linda Mullen, Grace & Diggs

Karen Scalia, Salem Food Tours

Kylie Sullivan, Salem Main Streets