Bay Area blues singer Annie Sampson headlines Day on the Green in Santa Rosa

For arts advocate Kathleen McCallum, who has been organizing local festivals and events for more than 20 years, Saturday’s ninth annual Day on the Green is more than just a free day of fun in the sun at Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village shopping center.

It’s part of an ongoing crusade to raise the profile of the arts, and local creative people of all kinds.

“I’d like to see us rebrand Sonoma County as Arts, Music and Wine Country,” McCallum said. “The arts are a destination, so why not offer more?”

Montgomery Village, where McCallum has worked on a variety of arts events, is also a busy destination. The shopping center is bound draw a crowd this weekend for a day that includes a juried art show and sale, children’s activities, a magic act, belly dancing and live music by longtime Bay Area favorite, singer Annie Sampson.

“I hope it’s just packed with people and we have a wonderful time,” Sampson said. “I’m looking forward to this event, because it’s a combination of music, photographs, paintings and handmade things - a blending of the arts. I really like that theme and that idea.”

The art show and sale, juried by Dennis Calabi of the Calabi Gallery in Santa Rosa, will include work by some 40 artists, including a painting by Lewis Bangham, a professor at The Academy of Art of San Francisco, and recent paintings by Chris Henry of Santa Rosa, who lost 30 years’ worth of his own artwork in last October’s wildfires.

There also will be art on display by Sebastopol sculptor Warren Arnold, who will receive the Day on the Green’s Lifetime Art Achievement Award in a ceremony at 11 a.m., for his more than 50 years of work as an artist, teacher and environmental advocate, McCallum said.

Other highlights include live tropical birds, free balloon art and wooden horse heads that kids can paint, in honor of the Well Trained Horses rescue and rehabilitation center, which will be the beneficiary of the day’s beverage sales.

The festival lineup features belly dancer Nathalie Tedrick, stage magician Ken Garr and caricature artist Marc Schmid, as well as Sampson and her band, including Santa Rosa drummer Gary Silva.

Sampson started out singing as a youngster in Bay Area church and school choirs and then went on to perform in the musical “Hair” at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco until the rock band Stoneground recruited her as lead singer. She made four Warner Brothers albums and toured the world with the group.

She has recorded with Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Buddy Miles, Maria Muldaur, Eddie Money and Country Joe McDonald, and has performed with Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs, Sammy Hagar, Commander Cody, Steve Miller, Nick Gravenites, Clarence Clemmons, Elvis Costello and Jerry Garcia. And she continues to perform with the Blues Broads, a foursome that includes Tracy Nelson, Angela Strehli and Dorothy Morrison.

Sampson expects her Saturday set list to include some of her band’s original songs, some R&B and rock classics and some tunes that her fans expect her to sing, including Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”

“I’ve done that song for years and I love doin’ it, and people love hearing it, no matter how many times we do it,” she said. “I just sing things that make me feel good, which hopefully turns into the audience loving it as well.”

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.