NORTHAMPTON — From the Valley Fest, a new youth film and photography festival started by two Hampshire County high schoolers, is coming to 33 Hawley in Northampton on Feb. 21. The inaugural event will showcase and celebrate the work of young artists in their respective mediums.
The festival was cultivated by Amherst Regional High School junior Ava Beganny and Pioneer Valley Performing Arts School junior Serena Gross, whose passion and friendship tied to photography and visual storytelling helped foster the idea. They became friends at the Deerfield Academy Summer Arts Camp and quickly bonded over their shared interests.
“We’ve been friends for a while, and we became friends because we had a shared love for visual art, such as photography and film. We were looking around the area trying to find some kind of festival to showcase our artwork, and we couldn’t really find anything that was really accessible to us, so we were like, ‘what if we just made it ourselves?’ And so, over the summer, we started talking about it and planning, and it all kind of went from there,” Beganny told Reminder Publishing.
As part of their summer at DASAC, the two were exposed to analog photography and visual storytelling, which eventually augmented the poetry they wrote. Beganny said it was a great experience for the two of them because it helped build their skills in those areas.
The festival will run on Feb. 21 from 2-4 p.m. The first hour is devoted to a photo gallery walk/mixer, where artists can connect further and speak to attendees about their work. The second hour features a presentation of the film submissions themselves.
“Youth artists can meet up with each other and get inspired, and just have a good connectiveness … I think that part is really cool, talking to other people your age that are interested in the same thing,” added Beganny. “It’s [the festival] casual, as in it’s not something to be super worried about going into it. Everyone who submitted has really good art, and it’s amazing to see, so it shouldn’t be a scary event where you’re worried your art isn’t good enough. It’s for youth artists, and it’s for people to try and experiment, and get inspired.
Beganny added, “I think that it’s really important to not only be creative in your own way in whatever art form it is, but to also look at other people’s ideas through artwork. I think it’s important to broaden your scope and to also get connected with other people. I have a lot of friends at Northampton High School, and I’m just trying to get a lot of people to come to this event. Not only if you’re an artist, but to see people doing things you’re not used to, because it can really make your brain open up more to different ideas.”
Beganny said the event is not meant to be competitive. Instead, it’s a showcase of the talented youth working in these areas. With that being said, one photographer and one filmmaker will be highlighted at the end of the event as “The Valley Favorite.”
“It’ll be a way to showcase one thing that really excelled in our eyes, but we don’t want it to be a competition; it’s just an added benefit. For everyone that’s submitted, we’re all proud of them, and it’s been amazing to see,” added Beganny.
Reflecting on the creation of the festival, Beganny said she and Gross are both thankful to be living in the valley, where doing something like this is attainable.
“I think we’re really lucky to live in an area where it’s accessible to do things like this and also to be supported through that. I think that it’s good that we’re taking this opportunity because there are places where people just don’t have access to these forms of art, or access to the funds to be able to put on such an event,” said Beganny. “We want to take advantage of that and be able to do this so that people will be more inspired in the future to do more stuff like this, because in all honesty, my ideas were inspired by a lot of local theater people who have put on their own events at different venues and such, and I kind of wanted to lean into that and put on my own event. I just wanted to lean right into my hobbies, which I know a lot of youth share with me, and to be able to have a big gathering where everybody can learn one way or another.”
Tickets for the first-ever From the Valley: Youth Film and Photography Festival are $7 for students and $12 for general admission. To purchase tickets or to learn more about the festival, visit tinyurl.com/tjmvd4s8.
“Art is a very special medium. I think that it’s not encouraged in a lot of places, and I want to be able to encourage that to youth so that they can try this thing that is often discouraged, because it’s hard to make a living when only focusing on art,” added Beganny. “But I think, especially as a kid or teenager, that’s the prime time to experiment with art, whether it’s film and photography, or theater, or writing, anything like that, I think is just wonderful, and I think everybody should have access to those types of things.”
