The Britt Music & Arts Festival in Jacksonville will include multiple concerts each week from June to October.

Looking to emphasize the “arts” in the Britt Music & Arts Festival, organizers are aiming to bring a new addition to the annual Jacksonville event —  celebrating the work by some of the Rogue Valley’s talented fine artists.

Britt organizers have collaborated with eight artists in the region to add a showcase for their paintings, jewelry and other artistic media to better represent the arts side of the festival.

The works of Anne Brooke, Lauren Card, Susan Burnes, Alx Fox, Desmond Serratore, Ilene Ganger-Stanfield, Kim Sterling and Nancy Sterling will be exhibited for all to admire and even purchase at the Britt Festival Pavilion’s lower gardens during five June concerts.

“This is the first time we’ve done this; there may have been an art collaboration decades ago, but we are just super excited to have fabulous local artists on the (Britt) Hill at the same time as the festival orchestra,” said Abby McKee, president and CEO of the Britt Festival. “We’ll celebrate high quality art and performances at one place at the same time.”

The exhibit will be on display starting at 5 p.m. during the following concert days: June 13, June 15, June 22, June 27 and June 29.

The June 13 concert will include musical works by Edvard Grieg, Antonin Dvořák and Gabriela Montero performed by the Britt Festival Orchestra; June 15 will be a BFO performance of selected works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Geneva Lewis; on June 22, the orchestra, with violinist Alex Gonzalez, will perform pieces by Gustav Mahler and John Corigliano; June 27 will bring cellist Joshua Roman and the orchestra together to play Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade;” and on June 29, BFO will perform selections of music from Latin America.

For concert tickets and further details, visit brittfest.org.

The idea to bring this new, art-focused station to the festival came about after Anne Brooke — longtime Jacksonville resident and founder and former director of Jacksonville’s Art Presence Art Center — reached out to McKee in hopes of a conversation about expanding the arts side of the festival.

After not initially hearing anything back, “all of sudden I got this voicemail, (saying) ‘Yes, we’d love to have you do this,’” Brooke said.

“We ended up talking for hours; she is so positive and said yes to everything I asked of her because she thinks this is a big deal too,” Brooke added regarding her conversations with McKee.

Organizers of the art display are hoping to serve wine and treats, providing a gallery experience while outdoors among music listeners.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how it goes,” Brooke said. “We’re going to be there as the park opens until the actual concert begins and during the intermission we’ll open again.”

While the Britt Music & Arts Festival has its annual call-to-artists program for the official festival poster, McKee and other organizers wanted to better represent Jacksonville and the Rogue Valley’s art scene, seeking submissions from local creatives that represents Britt’s unique location, history or other festival characteristics.

“Britt has the privilege of being a part of the Jacksonville arts community … for us, it’s an opportunity to boost the signal of people and artists working in Jacksonville year-round,” McKee said.

This year’s selected 2024 festival poster was designed by Oregon-based artist and ceramicist Diana Fayt.

The poster “focuses on music and Peter Britt’s apple trees that are still standing on the hill, and emphasizing those natural surroundings and vibe,” McKee said.

Visitors during the Britt concert season from June 7 to Oct. 14 will get the chance to see Fayt’s poster art up close.

Brooke, who created the poster art for the festival twice in the past, is hoping the new art installation at the Britt Gardens will become a mainstay for the concert series.

“To be able to actually have art there makes all the sense in the world,” Brooke said.

While Britt organizers intend to make the art display a yearly part of the festival, they will see how it goes before committing long term.

“I want to see how it goes; it’s a grand experiment, but I know it’s going to be great,” McKee said. “Britt has a very firm commitment to engaging with its community and highlighting the work of local artists and performers to really be a convener for that creative process in Southern Oregon.”

“It feels like magic because it makes so much sense to me, and being an artist, I want to see art everywhere,” Brooke said. “It soothes the soul, it is so keen for the eyes, so you combine music and art and you have at least two facets of being human that can’t be ignored.”

For further information about the upcoming exhibit and concerts, see brittfest.org or call 800-882-7488.