By: The Rev. Allan Wallace, St. Paul’s, New Albany
Since 2006, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in New Albany has welcomed the wider community to an art festival on its historic grounds, once known as Art on the Parish Green. For many years, the event served as the sole fundraiser for St. Paul’s Shepherd’s Kitchen ministry, which provides meals for neighbors experiencing food insecurity.
Even during the pandemic, when many feeding ministries were forced to pause, Shepherd’s Kitchen remained open—adapting by packaging meals for pickup. While the ministry continued, the suspension of the festival led to depleted funds, and with the retirement of the festival’s longtime coordinator, St. Paul’s faced the challenge of how to sustain both the event and the ministry it supported.
That challenge became an opportunity for collaboration. Just blocks away from St. Paul’s, the Arts Alliance of Southern Indiana had hosted the Monarch Festival, celebrating both creativity and community life. In 2024, St. Paul’s partnered with the Alliance to launch a new shared vision: the Monarch Festival at Art on the Parish Green.
The inaugural collaboration on September 8, 2024, proved such a success that this year the event expanded to two full days. The festival offered something for all generations—a Kids Zone with bouncy houses and face painting, local artists exhibiting and selling their works, live music, food vendors, a beer garden, opportunities to tour the church built in 1894, and a butterfly tent where visitors could experience the beauty of creation up close. Each day concluded with a butterfly release, a fitting symbol of hope and transformation.
“The Monarch Festival has become more than just a fundraiser,” said leaders at St. Paul’s. “It is part of the culture of Southern Indiana, a free opportunity for neighbors to gather in joy, to support local artists, and to help ensure that those who are hungry in our community are fed.”
Plans are already underway for next year’s festival. St. Paul’s invites everyone to mark their calendars for September 12–13, 2026, to be part of this growing tradition of art, hospitality, and care for neighbors.
