By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The proliferation of parklets along Main Street is forcing changes to the layout of the juried art show at the Black Swamp Arts Festival, Sept. 9-11.
Jessica Turos, co-chair of the visual arts committee, said that the festival will again have 108 juried artists in 112 booths (four artists use double booths).
Those booths, though, will be stretched an additional block, extending to the intersection of South Main and Pearl.
The addition of four more parklets on Main Street this summer made the extension necessary.
The festival had arranged artists in “quads,” with four booths together forming a square. That set-up is a distinctive part of the festival and is liked by the artists, said Todd Ahrens, chair of the festival committee of volunteers who produce the annual festival. “We’re trying to maintain that as much as possible.”
But the parklets made it impossible in some spots to maintain the fire lane required by the city. Each parklet means the loss of space for four to eight booths. That means some booths will be arranged in twos.
To make up for that, the juried art show will extend to Pearl Street.
The biggest challenge early this summer was uncertainty about where the parklets would be. Once that was determined, festival organizers could map out the art booths.
[RELATED: Black Swamp Arts Festival still needs volunteers]
Extending the show north meant that space had to be found for Chalk Walk, which has been located in the block between Washington and Pearl.
The festival cannot extend beyond Pearl, said Doug Cubberley, who co-chairs the site and logistics committee. The city needs to maintain Pearl as a route for emergency vehicles crossing town from the fire station to the west.
So Chalk Walk was moved to the other end of the festival, just beyond the Youth Arts Village, extending to Clay Street.
This does bring it into closer proximity to another activity geared to teens, the Beats on the Street, which takes place on the Youth Arts stage.
Ahrens noted that the construction of the new city building in that area, also will require moving tie-dying station to a new location.
Having the art show extend to Pearl Street is not unprecedented. In 2006 the art show went to Pearl as the festival increased the number of artists it included. However, it reverted to the next year and that layout has been used since.
This year, the visual arts committee is using an idea originated in 2006. They are placing the seven, or eight, returning prize winners on Main Street near the Flower Basket parking lot, which is a main entrance to Lot 2 with the main stage and beer garden.
The returning prize winners are:
- Said Oladejo-Lawal, painting, Columbus, best of show.
- Sumiko Takada, ceramics, Upper Arlington, first place 3-D
- Nick Ringelstetter, Spring Green, Wisconsin, who is focusing on painting this year, first place 2-D.
- Derrick Riley, a printmaker from Lexington, Kentucky, second place.
- Joe Dagostino, a photographer from Sagamore Hills, third place.
- Jeneen Hobby, photography, and Robert Bridges, painting, honorable mentions.
Turos said there was a good mix of artists – some are regulars, some are new, some have been in the show a few times in the past.
The changing panel of jurors insures some turnover in the artists who are accepted into the show.
This is the second year that the art show will open on Friday night.
That change, which many artists have been asking for, was a success Ahrens said. “Artists were very happy about it.”
“Times change,” said Cubberley. For years the city resisted closing Main Street on Friday nights.
Art show hours are Friday (9/9), 5-8 p.m.; Saturday (9/10), 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday (9/11), 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
One downtown development the festival will not participate in is DORA.
When passing the legislation to extend the time and area of DORA, city council carved out festival weekend at the festival’s request. The footprint of the festival is different than that of DORA, Ahrens said. The festival sells alcohol with an F permit, and that applies to Lot 2 behind Juniper and Beckett’s. DORA extends down Main Street.
Any time an applicant changes size of its area, it opens it up to “enforcement issues,” Cubberley said. “That’s why we’re very diligent in the beer garden with ID checks. To expand that would put us on tilt a little bit trying to figure out how to make sure no one is drinking where they shouldn’t.”
This would make protecting the artists booths more difficult.
Also, the city and police have resisted extending DORA to parking lots, including Lot 2, Ahrens said.
The city and police division have been “outstanding” working with the festival, Cubberley said.
