"The opportunity to work with the Connecticut Folk Festival was a no-brainer, a win-win situation for everyone involved"

Art students at Southern Connecticut State University, shown in photo, helped design the official T-shirt for the 2008 Connecticut Folk Festival & Green Expo, director Barbara Manners said.
Formerly known as the New Haven Folk Festival, the Connecticut Folk Festival & Green Expo aims to bring "outstanding performers" to New Haven on Sept. 12-14, including Steve Earle and the Holmes Brothers. Over the course of the festival the student-designed T-shirt will be seen by an audience of more than 3000 people, organizers said in a statement.
"We approached art teacher Thuan Vu about working with his students because the art department at SCSU represents a fabulous pool of talent," Manners said in the statement.
Vu worked with his summer art class to come up with a variety of designs on the Festival’s themes of music, community, and environmental awareness. He said in the statement that his students were "excited to create designs that would be seen by the community at large and to be a part of something so positive and wonderful for the people of Connecticut . It allowed them to use their drawing and design skills to meet the demands of a professional job and they performed beautifully."
"The opportunity to work with the Connecticut Folk Festival was a no-brainer, a win-win situation for everyone involved," Vu said in the statement.
After reviewing the students’ designs, festival organizers chose Natalie Torres’s design created with computer graphics. Torres will receive$100 for her design. The T-shirt committee planned to only choose one design, but a second design, by Chris Ardito, was selected for use in other festival publicity. The contest was sponsored by the Book Trader Café and Hull’s Art Supply and Framing, both of New Haven.
The Festival’s traditional Saturday night concert under the stars in Edgerton Park on Sept. 13 will feature Steve Earle, the Holmes Brothers, Ruthie Foster, local favorites the Professors of Bluegrass, and Harry Manx and Allison Moorer. Friday evening’s concert at Lyman Center on Sept. 12 will showcase three "newgrass" and "roots rock" bands: Donna the Buffalo, Crooked Still, and Milton.
The Green Expo on Sept. 14 will be the largest ever held in Connecticut, organizers said. The free Green Expo will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the main quad of SCSU’s campus. Environmental exhibits and demonstrations will educate the whole family, while music performances, workshops and art activities will engage the younger audience.
The Festival’s kick-off event will be the Grassy Hill Song Circle on Friday, Sept. 5. The Song Circle will present four singer-songwriters in an intimate setting. Cliff Eberhardt, Tom Pacheco, Lara Herscovitch and Joe Crookston will perform at 8 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 704 Whitney Ave., New Haven.
For additional events and artists and a complete schedule visit www.ctfolk.org. Tickets can be purchased at the Web site tickets.southernct.edu or by calling the Lyman Center Box Office at (203) 392-6154.