Hey Artists we are really doing a good job at building artistic culture in our community. We just got done with the Monroe City-County Fine Arts Council’s Juried Art Show, which had a record number of artists and work entered this year. Right now we have artists painting on the street every other Thursday night during the Jazz Series Downtown Monroe. These artists are dedicated to showing up every week and they help show our towns residents that it is fun to support the arts. Anyone is welcome to join them, it is open to the public, you need not apply but if you would like more information on this event please e-mail me or James Tidwell, our addresses are listed below.
Also, we are gearing up for TWO art shows; the first is Saturday July 23rd, in Luna Pier MI. The Tourism Bureau is hosting a “Bootleggers and Blues” Concert. They have invited artists to join in. The Concert starts at noon and ends at 10pm, artists do not need to stay the entire time. This year the show is free and the rules are very loose, just contact Jim or myself and we will register you.
Our other art show is of course the Downtown Monroe Fine Art Fair. This is our 8th year and the Jazz Festivals 12th year, and I’m sure you have heard the Jazz Festival has Kenny G preforming. This should bring in a large crowd…but they aren’t the only ones stepping up to grow the shows. The Art Fair has increased its advertising, and has teamed up with some of the local preforming groups to give the show some more diversity, and the Monroe City-County Fine Arts Council has a surprise performance that you don’t want to miss.
This show is one of the cheapest shows to get into and if you are a local artist this is the show for you to do. Last year Gary Willson claimed that the Monroe Show was one of his most successful shows of his season, partly from the shoppers and partly form the low overhead of costs he had to put out. David Larkins claimed that this show was one of the best show of his life, and many of our other artists were very successful too, including myself who sold almost all of my wall-hangings.
If you do regular street shows I urge you to give this a try, it is so nice to do a local show there is minimal gas, no hotel stay, and a low entry fee…plus a lot of friends and family come out to visit. It also promotes the Arts in the town you live in. And the more we make our artistic culture grow the more our local residents will buy our work, and the less traveling we will have to do and the better our town will be.
If this is your first show, it is a great show to try out….spoken from someone who’s first show was this show. It is smaller and close to home, cheap, and all of the volunteers are extremely friendly. We also have a blooming artist tent, for the artists who have never done an art show before.
And finally, I was at a meeting today where we discussed having a monthly artist market in our downtown area. This probably wouldn’t happen for a year but imagine how wonderful it would be to have such an asset to our community.
Please visit the Downtown Monroe Fine Art Fairs website to get information on their show www.monroefineartfair.com And e-mail me or Jimmy to get info on other events….
Christy@christylaroy.com jimmy.t@prodigy.net
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