Remembering a visit she made to Fairfield Hills as a child, artist Karen Ciocca returned and took a picture of one of the iconic cupolas and used it as both a basis and inspiration for what has been selected as the signature art of the 2024 Newtown Arts Festival. This year’s event is planned for September 20-22, with an opening concert on Friday night on the grounds of the Festival in Fairfield Hills.

A native of Connecticut, Ciocca attended Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia and graduated with a BA from Sacred Heart University after majoring in graphic design and illustration.

Her favorite mediums, she says, “are many.”

“I tend to gravitate to pastels and watercolor. I love to make wirework jewelry,” Ciocca said recently.

Her career has been mostly as a package designer for major retail brands, and her work has been seen on the products created by Perrier, Land O’Lakes, Lindt Chocolate, and Bigelow Tea. For many years, she worked as a graphic and package designer for Pilot Pen.

Ciocca is currently a consultant art director at Aurora Products and open to taking on new clients.

Ciocca also creates digital paintings for beer labels and art prints in Procreate and Adobe Creative Suite and sells art products on Etsy. Her instructional videos can be found on YouTube. Her website, moonflowerstudiocreative.com, declares her motto: “If Life Gives You Lemons, Paint Them!”

Readers will get a preview of her work when she is the featured artist at The Newtown Municipal Center Art Gallery in July.

Her festival work will be available both as T-shirts and posters at the entry tent at the Arts Festival and in her own booth within the artisan area.

After having to cancel the 2023 Arts Festival because of bad weather, Newtown Cultural Arts Commission is planning the 2024 presentation to be better than ever with visual and performing arts. It will again feature the festival’s “Freeway,” where attendees can experience some visual arts as part of their entry fee under the guidance of professional artists.

Hours are 11 am-5 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Admission remains $5, with ages 5 and under admitted for free.

The Beer and Wine Garden will be returning as well as the food trucks and shade tents that enable enjoying the festival no matter the weather. There will be music both days. The 2023 festival sold out of spaces for artisans. Artisans and vendors who would like to participate in this year’s festival are invited to contact the committee at newtownartsfestival@gmail.com.

Newtown Cultural Arts Commission Chair Laura Lerman, one of three festival coordinators this year, says the festival is more than a way to “bring the arts to as many people as possible in an affordable way as possible.

“It’s also meant as a community event,” she noted.

Lerman is working this year with fellow co-coordinators Cultural Commission Vice Chairman Andrea Spenser and Festival Grounds Chairman Jen Cebry.