The Late Summer Art Fair Guide

While the city is always hopping with studio and gallery activity, the advent of summer means it’s time to take it outside. The Loring Park Art Festival and Red Hot Art Festival share the last weekend of July with the younger (but still seasoned) FLOW Northside Arts Crawl, while the long-running Uptown and Powderhorn Art Fairs take place the week after that. The newest addition to the art fair circuit is the Summer Shindig at Casket Arts, a one-night only event in between the two blow-out weekends.

Between these six festivals, there are all mediums from woodworking to painting, all formats from studio crawls to park booths, and a heap of entertainment included as well. They’re great places to start building your art collection, to pick up smaller works from local makers, or to buy gifts for the art-lovers in your life. Come for the art; stay for the music, the food, and the people.

 

FLOW Northside Arts Crawl
July 28-30, West Broadway Corridor

Sponsored by West Broadway Business and Area Coalition and running annually since 2006, this crawl includes a bit of everything in a real life setting instead of rented booths. There’s an inaugural block party on Thursday, preview and gallery events and performance art on Friday, followed by a Saturday studio and gallery crawl throughout the neighborhood. 

With over 300 artists involved and no curated emphasis, it features everything from graffiti art and b-boy culture to dance, theater, and traditional fine arts like painting and ceramics. The self-guided nature of the crawl takes one through the city, breathing the air and matching maker to setting in direct fashion. Attendance topped 10,000 in 2015, and the event highlights the vibrant West Broadway Corridor. This year will also celebrate local art come to life in city beautification, debuting new artwork on 42 benches, planters, bike racks, and information kiosks, highlighted by Freedom Square at 2034 W. Broadway. A formerly vacant city lot, it will become a center for artist-led programming over the coming year. Entertainment includes pop-up art booths, pop-up restaurants, and a Boom Island beer garden at Breaking Bread Café.

 

Loring Park Art Festival
July 30-31, Loring Park

Set in iconic Loring Park, sandwiched between downtown and The Walker, the Loring Park Art Festival is artist-run and features 140 different participants from all parts of the country (and Minnesota). The event is a bit of everything, from selling fine arts to interactive painting, poetry, and more. There will be choral and ukulele music, live painting (both on display and more educationally minded), and even puppetry and food trucks.

Mediums include ceramics, glass, jewelry, fiber, mixed media, painting, photography, wood, sculpture, paper, and printmaking set up in booths throughout the park. On the activity side there will be piano-decorating for Pianos on Parade and a Bloodmobile onsite. “Instead of having a pint [of beer] we’re asking folks to leave a pint [of blood],” says Pat Parnow, a co-founder of the festival. Be warned of roadwork near Hennepin and Lyndale.

 

Red Hot Art Festival
July 30-31, Stevens Square Park

With over 200 artists, 20 bands and musicians, and several food trucks, Red Hot Art Festival will insert entertainment directly into the art fair equation with a central music stage. Big Zach will host musical events that include St. Paul Slim and New Reb (feat. Drew Misik), while food trucks include La Loma Tamales, MN Nice Cream, Baldy’s BBQ, and more. Sunday includes an AM Yoga in the Park session just before the festival itself starts back up.

Red Hot Art is focused solely on local vendors, with lower priced booths that attract a variety of painters, printmakers, photographers, jewelry makers, and other artisans that aren’t found elsewhere. While the party has the feel of a big time event, the egos are left at the door as a true community spirit shines through the neighborhood just south of Interstate 94.

 

The Summer Shindig
August 4, Casket Arts Building

Building on the already popular First Thursdays, this August event brings a tent party environment to the open studio concept with live music, food, and film. Outside in the parking lot there will be music by Gabe Barnett & Them Rounders, Katey Bellville & Those Sonsabitches, and Jake & Gretta as well as four-legged representatives of the Upper Midwest Great Dane Rescue and an interactive activity area for kids of all ages. Inside there will be a variety of other activities that range from a t-shirt printing party to an audio-visual experience in studio 114. Gastrotruck and MN Nice Cream are serving food and the evening will close with an outdoor screening of the documentary Bikes Vs. Cars.

With well over 100 artists in the building, there’s a bit of every format from mixed media sculpture to photography, woodworking, and ecological architecture.

 

Uptown Art Fair
August 5-7, Lake/Hennepin intersection

This award-winning fair is the second largest event in the state, ranking below the State Fair at number one. It draws artists and makers of 12 different mediums from across the globe, highlighting works of sculpture, painting, ceramics, jewelry, and more. There is a beer garden sponsored by Summit, live music that spans most genres, and an emphasis on culinary arts as well with food vendors and beverage options in abundance.

2016’s new additions include a film screening of The Wizard of Oz on Friday night, a partnership with radio station GO96.3 on the musical stage, and a dedicated slot on Saturday for performance art from live caricatures and face painting to shows by the Renaissance Festival MN. Family Imagination Station is set up for working hands-on with pottery, making one’s own objects out of clay.

Attracting up to 400,000 visitors per year, Uptown Art Fair is the biggest of the bunch.

 

Powderhorn Art Fair
August 6-7, Powderhorn Park

2016 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of this inner city art fair off the small but picturesque Powderhorn Park. Expecting upwards of 20,000 visitors, this fair features 220 artists across various disciplines and backgrounds from across the country, including within the Powderhorn neighborhood itself. It’s also a fundraiser for the park’s year round programs. In tandem with the park board, the event is green-themed and eco-friendly.

Vendors are spread out around the lake and are separated from street noise by a buffer layer of trees. You’ll find pottery, jewelry, glass, photography, printmaking, wood, leather, mixed media, drawings, and more, and the majority come from Minnesota and neighboring states. There are also 17 food vendors spread throughout and a variety of world music that includes Irish Accordion Music, Modern Nostalgia, and Iranian and Kurdish Music. 

-- Loren Green
 

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