Woo hoo! Don't you just love it when you see the Wall Street Journal with a headline like this:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel Declares Old Town Triangle Art Fair Weekend 
Throughout Chicago
CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - June 05, 2013) - Summer has arrived in Chicago! To celebrate, the Old Town Triangle Association is excited to announce that Mayor Emanuel and the City Council have officially declared June 8th & 9th, 2013 as the "Old Town Triangle Art Fair Weekend" throughout Chicago. We hope our fellow Chicagoans will show their support next weekend and attend the unmistakable Old Town Art Fair, a historic, non-profit, volunteer-led event that supports community charities and the preservation of Chicago's historic Old Town Triangle.
We participated in the Old Town Art Fair for 15 years. In our second year of doing art fairs my husband, photographer Norm Darwish, juried for the show and got it! We had no idea about the legend behind the show but it quickly became a favorite and the show still holds our two day record for sales.
The first year we did the show the TV weather person introduced the weekend weather forecast with the words, "it's going to be a great weekend for the Old Town Art Fair", and we knew in Chicago we were ready for something good.
Congrats to the Old Town media people for getting this article into the WSJ. Best wishes to everyone this weekend. Many of our members will be there, including the poster child Helen Gotlib.
The rest of the article: http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130605-908875.html
Anyone else going to be there?
Comments
You know, Geri, I ran into that also, not being a subscriber and I wasn't going to subscribe. Try this link that I found: http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130605-908875.html
I'm just going to copy the whole article:
This year marks the 64th Old Town Art Fair, and the 65th anniversary of the Old Town Triangle Association. Our famous annual art fair, showcasing 250 juried artists in the beautiful open-air setting of Chicago's historic Old Town Triangle district. We are the "original" Old Town Art Fair, celebrating our 64th birthday in style.
With Vi Daley (retired 43rd Ward Alderman) as the President of our community not-for-profit organization, we are undertaking some exciting efforts to showcase the acclaimed artists and gourmet food vendors at this year's fair. Featuring new, acclaimed artists is this year's biggest differentiator, striving to deliver real variety and real quality to our patrons. Art, history and kid-friendly are also major differentiators between our original Old Town Art Fair and the "Wells Street Fest" (a nearby street festival that occurs, confusingly, on the same weekend).
ABOUT THE OLD TOWN ART FAIR: "REAL ART - REAL OLD TOWN"
Chicago's historic Old Town Triangle district oldtowntriangle.com conducts their 64th annual art fair which hosts 250 nationally acclaimed artists inside the beautifully preserved "Old Town Triangle" neighborhood (located NORTH of North Avenue, between Sedgwick and Clark Streets).
"Real Art in Real Old Town" is the simplest way to describe this family-friendly, classic Chicago art fair (not to be confused with the Wells Street Fest held on the same weekend, just south of North Avenue).
In addition to being one of America's oldest art fairs, this year the organizers showcase the highest number of new artists in years. Other highlights of the 2013 Old Town Art Fair include the coveted "Garden Walk," featuring a rare look at more than 50 hidden gardens of Old Town, many local favorite food and drink vendors, a Children's Corner with fire truck, and music performances. The weekend kicks off with an opening gala and silent auction on Friday June 7th -- tickets available at www.OldTownArtFair.org
Location/Street Address: The main gates located at Lincoln & Wisconsin (near Hotel Lincoln) or Sedgwick & Menomonee (near Twin Anchors)... THIS FAIR IS NOT ON WELLS STREET -- we are inside the Old Town Triangle district (North of North Avenue, between Sedgwick and Clark Streets).
Admission Policy: $7 donation, children 12 and under are invited to enter free (proceeds benefit area non-profit organizations)
Larry, that matched my experience. I won best of show for photography and didn't get the automatic reinvite they were supposed to do. First year was up near the front gate and had great show and sold out of some lines of work. Following year was moved to the lower forty and bombed badly.
Wells Street was the second best two day show (Madison was first) we ever had. I had a high profile corner space and the buyers all walked over from the Old Town Show.
Then the following year I didn't make expenses.
Go figure.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Well I couldn't read the article since I don't subscribe but not more than 5 minutes ago, as we discussed going to Old Town, I said that we definitely didn't want to go to Wells Street, although the food was better.
That is not to say that Old Town is all genteel or anything -- plenty of beer to be bought and parties to attend in the neighborhood, but a really fun weekend for Chicagoans. There is a loyal bunch of attendees who wouldn't miss this for anything. I recently spoke with someone who could tell me where our booth was. This is just about the only show that makes me nostalgic for the business.
Wells Street is probably hoping for more spillover and folks getting lost on the way to Old Town and winding up on Wells Street. It's been a bunch of years since I last did Wells Street, and with luck, it'll not be on my schedule. After reading about the drunken fools over there and artists getting hit with rocks and being assaulted, it sounds worse than when I last did it. I don't think there's any confusion between the two ;-)
Barry's comment sums it up pretty well; "loud belch"= uncouth environment and "order extra beer"=prime mission of that gig is to sell more beer and brats.
If you read the article you will see in large caps THIS IS NOT THE WELLS ST ART FAIR.
Word from the Wells St show: Loud belch... "we better order extra beer..."