By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
In an effort to make it easier for visitors to check out the exhibitors in the 2019 Art Walk, the organizers turned to the library.
Each of the artists of the artists who will have their work judged will display a favorite piece in the Wood County District Public Library, which will be the focal point of this year’s event.
That, said Tony Vetter, executive director of Downtown Bowling Green, will give viewers a chance to look at the entire field, and then head out to find their favorite artists who will be exhibiting their wares as usual in shops throughout the downtown. That way they’ll be able to plan to get out to some of the displays on the edge of the downtown.
Art Walk 2019 will be held on Saturday, April 27, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a reception and awards ceremony to follow in the library at 3:30 p.m. The Bowling Green Arts Council and Downtown BG are partners in presenting Art Walk.
More than 30 artists have signed up for the show. The show’s judges will base their decisions on the work exhibited in the library, Vetter said. Winners will receive cash prizes.
People’s Choice Awards will also be presented.
Work by artists from local schools will also be displayed in store fronts throughout the downtown.
Vetter is hoping the shorter show hours mean people will have a little more energy at the end of the day to come and participate in the reception. The reception will feature grazing stations with food provided by Qdoba and Kabob-It. Pianist Mary Claire Miller, a Bowling Green State University student, will play the library’s Steinway grand.
Music will be a part of Art Walk, Vetter said. This year it will be concentrated in specific venues. Local bands will play in Grumpy Dave’s, upstairs above Easy Street Cafe. Details are still being worked out for students from BGSU to perform.
The changes are a way of fine tuning an event now in its 27th year.
Community members have been invited to decorate metal gnomes. Seventeen of the gnomes have been distributed, and they’ve started coming back into the Downtown BG office, upstairs in the Four Corners building. “It blew me away what they did with them,” Vetter said.
Decorators have until Monday to return their creations.
The gnomes will be raffled off. Visitors will be able to buy raffle tickets, and then use those tickets to vote on their favorite gnome. The winner will get a prize in Downtown Dollars.
Then one ticket from each gnome’s ballot box will be drawn with the winner getting to take the gnome home.
The proceeds of the raffle will benefit the Downtown Foundation Flower Fund.
One element will not change. Members of the Black Swamp Quilters Guild will display their work, and demonstrate their craft in the lobby of the Four Corners Center. The guild will raffle off a quilt.
