Oak Park IL May 15-16

Run by West Suburban Art Guild In Mills Park
Nutshell: New location, serious organization issues (not necessarily the Art Guild's fault), difficult dolly in the a.m., very low attendance, cold.

The location was in an fenced in park on the grounds of a mansion, now open to the public. Which was the major problem. Weddings were planned for that day, forcing organizers to change the location and layout within the park the morning of the event. And that entrance was closed to art fair patrons for Saturday.

Everyone had to dolly in through the gates of an iron fence. There were just two entrances, so you can imagine the squeeze. The hasty layout left some artists by themselves in the middle of an empty space and others along a back row that was blocked by garbage cans (where I was). We kept moving the cans and someone kept moving them back. Sales and the crowd were very low due to the cold and new location and fuzzy layout. Sunday afternoon, I finally saw some art leaving the park.