Here's a little background from the local TV channel:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - More than $2.5 million in original art is expected to be sold this weekend at the Uptown Art Fair.
With about 375,000 visitors, attendance at the event is second only to the Minnesota State Fair.
Hundreds of artists will be selling sculptures, paintings, photos' woodcarvings, glasswork, jewelry and more. Attendance is free at the event held at the corner of Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue and running down a nearby pedestrian mall.
My husband, Norm Darwish, and I did Uptown many years, often breaking into the five figures in sales, selling his photography to a lovely group of people in Minneapolis and having a great time in the Uptown neighborhood. But the year the booth fees went up, we were asked for a separate fee to have the same space that we'd had for years, we were "requested" to contribute to the auction and they put a food booth that grilled brats all day long with the smoke blowing into our space we decided to say good bye to metro Minneapolis.
In subsequent years we listened closely to the show reports from our friends and were not enticed to return. Read a review by Nels Johnson on Ellen Marshall's take on this years fair.
It is the Big Art Weekend in Minneapolis though and everyone has their own story. Here are some I found:
An excellent overview at the StarTribune: The Newbie (Andy Juelich) and the Veteran (Renee & Douglas Sigwarth) that includes an excellent video of the Sigwarth's working in their art glass studio.
Artist Dolan Geiman always has a unique point of view about the events where he shows his work, visit his Daily Dolan Geiman blog to hear his tornado report from Uptown.
I won't return to Uptown. It was my worst show in decades and I am actually having good sales this year at other shows. Across from me was airplanes made out of aluminum beer and soda cans, up from me was some fimo that looked like a 5th grader made it, lots of **** on a stick everywhere, some pottery that was just a waste of good clay and the type of crowd that attended loved that stuff.... not too many in my area seemed to be able to afford much more than a hot dog and a garden stick, not that there's anything wrong with that! Just shouldn't be at this event, but then again, this event is put on by people that are just filling booths and don't really care about a high quality show.
I have worked hard my career to improve my craft, I have paid my dues and then to show up to a show like this was degrading.
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I have worked hard my career to improve my craft, I have paid my dues and then to show up to a show like this was degrading.