Big as all creation
More than 240 artists and crafts people will take part in the Manayunk Arts Festival.
Manayunk turns into a tent city filled with art this weekend with hundreds of booths selling everything from drop earrings to couch paintings.
When the 22d annual Manayunk Arts Festival opens Saturday morning, the neighborhood's Main Street will be closed to traffic - except foot traffic.
Organizers say they expect the usual crowd of nearly 200,000, despite gas prices and the sluggish economy. They hope two trends will buoy attendance - more families skipping expensive vacations and more people looking for free events.
"Paying at the pump is affecting spending on everything, so I think that people are looking for free events," said Joan Denenberg, a coordinator.
"We realize that more people will be doing staycations, so we think that the arts festival will be even more highly attended," said Martha Vidauri, another organizer. "If you think about someone who is an art collector looking for that perfect piece, they would have to travel to many different places to find it, but the beauty here is that we bring together so many highly sought-after artists, and they could just walk around and look."
More than 240 artists will participate in the two-day juried show - presenting oils, sculptures, watercolors, wedding bands, wooden clocks, wearable art, stained glass, ceramics, beadwork, bronze elephant-head door knockers, bow ties, shawls, jewelry, robot art, hand-fashioned board games, hand-painted baby clothes, handcrafted furniture and hand-tooled purses.
Art buyers will recognize many of the artists. Charles Cushing's Philadelphia cityscapes hang in public and private collections in the city. Joe Barker's Philadelphia landscapes adorn every room in the Rittenhouse Hotel, and Sandra Webberking's sculpted bike racks dot sidewalks throughout the region. Other featured artists include Smadar Livne, Loretta Lam, Armond Scavo, Randal Napier, Soli Pierce, Joyce Hughes, Brian Marshall, and Daniel Nie.
Denenberg, who jokes that two-thirds of everything she wears on an average day comes from an arts festival, scouts artists at other East Coast shows.
"A lot of making the show great is walking up to an artist and saying, 'Your stuff is fabulous. Have you ever thought about Manayunk?' " Denenberg said.
"People want the same artists. They want to go back and buy from the same people," she says. "At the same time, people want to see that one or two artists that they haven't seen, that just blow them away. Every year, we get a very significant amount of new artists, so you never know what kind of work you're going to see. That's what makes it such a good show."
This year's festival will feature two artists in collaboration with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
Philadelphia artist Mat Tomezsko was chosen to create a roving art gallery. He walked around Manayunk starting in April, photographing faces of people he found interesting. His art gallery will feature oil-on-plywood portraits, a mix of current faces and historic Manayunk figures.
Roadsworth, a street artist who actually paints on streets, was also chosen in collaboration with the mural arts program.
Roadsworth, also known as Peter Gibson of Montreal, began painting the streets of his hometown in 2001. His street designs began as a campaign for more bike paths in the city, but Gibson continued to stencil the streets until he was arrested for his nighttime painting in 2004. Public support led to a light sentence and commissions for his work.
He will create two pieces of street art during the festival, using special paint made for asphalt. As he paints, Roadsworth will be surrounded by low barricades so passersby can lean over and talk with him.
After some artists complained about the organization of last year's show, Manayunk Development Corp., the show organizer, will move the exhibit booths farther apart this year and provide more amenities for artists.
"There's a real consciousness among all of us working on the art festival that without great art we've got nothing, so that means that we really need to help the artists and listen to them," Denenberg said.