A city that has come to be defined as a demystifier of the arts and an ardent champion of acceptance will highlight a new spirit of cooperation this weekend during the first New London Festival of Creativity and Innovation.

Planned in coordination with the New London Foundation for the Arts' decision to hold its annual Creative Communities Exchange conference in New London on Thursday and Friday, the festival came together in only a few months' time, coordinated by Hygienic Art, Spark Makerspace and the downtown MS17 Art Project.

Running Thursday through Sunday, the festival gives conference attendees a reason to stick around a couple more days, offering a Blues & Brews Fest, a storefront art project, an art show featuring some of the most respected artists in Connecticut and a CREATiNOVA maker fair featuring live demonstrations.

"Art can be so mysterious and intimidating," said one of the maker fair's organizers, Aly Maderson Quinlog of Spark Makerspace, in an interview last week. "We wanted to let people inside to show the process of making art ... art as a daily activity."

CREATiNOVA, which expects about 25 artists to participate from 2 to 7 p.m. Friday and noon to 7 p.m. Saturday at Parade Plaza, will include glass workers, jewelry makers, knitters, potters, metal sculptors and printmakers all showing off their craft as they work. Fairgoers will be asked to participate in many of the artistic endeavors.

"We have a kind of punk aesthetic," Quinlog said. "We make the best stuff out of whatever we can find. ... It's very New London. It's a little scrappy, maybe a little weird — but in a fun way."

The way CREATiNOVA and other events at the four-day festival have come together represents the kind of anything-goes aesthetic that collaborators have embraced, never afraid to make a mistake or try something different.

"It's the best collaborative group I have ever worked with," said Sarah McKay, general manager of Hygienic Art Galleries and a key festival organizer. "'Just try it — what is there to lose' (was the mantra, derived largely from the attitude of Kristin Harkness, a local entrepreneur) ... We decided failure is an option, and maybe we can learn from failure."

Migdalia Salas, director of the MS17 Art Project headquartered at the Harris Place building on State Street, said all of the festival events are based on art engagement, and each of the organizers brought something different to the table.

"We complemented each other in a really interesting way," she said.

Salas' storefront project will feature about a dozen projects by Connecticut artists covering more than two dozen windows on State Street between Union and Huntington streets. Also included is the Marquee Gallery at 74 State St. in what Salas branded a "museum without walls."

Artists exhibiting include Salas' husband, Mark McKee, along with Rob Greene, Diane Barcelo and Ashby Carlisle, Alexia Lalande, Gail Gelburd, Imna Arroyo and local photographer Vinnie Scarano. Students from an enrichment program at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School also will be exhibiting.

More art in a wide range of styles will be on tap at the Hygienic, which is hosting The Apex show running through July 1. Featured artists include John O'Donnell, Cat Balco and Robert Deyber, and all of those chosen for the exhibit were picked by leading curators across the state.

Completing the events for the first Festival of Creativity and Innovation is the one most likely to bring crowds downtown: the Blues & Brews Fest that runs Saturday and Sunday.

"It's things like this that create a sense of place for the new young people in New London," Salas said. "Everything we are doing is based on art engagement."

Some of the top acts include Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, the Dave Fields Band, The Side Winders, Cedric Mayfield and Epitome, the Franklin Brothers and Brandt Taylor, performing in several locations from noon to midnight Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday,

Venues include Hygienic Art Park, Daddy Jack's, The Social, Octane, 33 Golden, The Bistro and the Gallery at Firehouse Square, with free beer samples at the Seehund German Pub & Restaurant from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

For tickets, visit www.creativityinnovationfest.org, or pick them up at the Hygienic, The Bistro, Daddy Jack's and 33 Golden St., among other locations.

l.howard@theday.com