Tent Space Coveted By Artists

Tent Space Coveted By Artists

BY RICH QUACKENBUSH Arts Editor

They're going in opposite directions.

Then, the wheels of the two baby strollers scrape and lock. The wail of an indignant infant fills the air.

It’s over in a minute, and the crowds behind the strollers almost immediately pick up their steady two-lane flow through the exhibit area.

The setting is a striped tent, one of three big tops set up for the State Street Area Art Fair on Maynard Street.

Even when a breeze whips around the corner and sweeps along Maynard Street, these display tents can be hot and stuffy.

There are just 46 10-foot square exhibit spaces in these tents.

That’s the same sized space that outdoor exhibitors receive in the Liberty Street and North University Avenue areas of the State Street Area Fair.

But snugly hemmed into the confines of the tents, these indoor spaces look much smaller.

However, don’t get the idea that a tent space is an undesirable location during Ann Arbor's art fair days.

"On the contrary, ” says fair coordinator John Schreer, "it’s a much coveted location.”

Schreer said that more than half of those artists applying for the fair’s 131 spaces request tent sites.

“We always have to turn down some artists,” he said.

And those who are granted tent space must be willing to pay for it. They pay $110 for their covered display areas while State Street area artists on the streets pay only $55.

For those extra bucks, the artists in the tents receive extra security.

They’re guaranteed as much protection from the weather as anyone can get during art fair week.

And they don't have to pack up their wares and store them in cars, vans or hotel rooms for the night.

They can leave their work, safe in the knowledge that their money is paying security guards to patrol the tent area each night.

These are the advantages of tent space, according to Schreer.

And the artists there tend to agree with him.

Having exhibited once at Virginia Beach, outdoors on the boardwalk as a hurricane was building. North Carolina artist Alice Snow says weather is her reason for wanting tent space.

“1 follow a circuit, going to fairs in North and South Carolina, Virginia Beach, Richmond, Ann Arbor and Jackson," Snow said, "and it's rare to find this much weather security at a fair.

"Now, I paint in all sorts of media, and I just cringe when I see a dark cloud rolling by,” she continued. "I have visions of all my colors running together and running into the street."

For St. Louis, Mo. stoneware potter Nancy Kibens, it’s the convenience of leaving her works at the display area overnight that attracted her to a tent.

An Ann Arbor resident for six years before moving to Missouri two years ago, Kibens has exhibited in the Stale Street Area Fair for the past five years.

"In other years, I asked for outdoor spaces. With stoneware, I really don't worry about rain.

"But this year, I'm here alone and I know it would have been a hassle carting this stuff to and from the fair each day,” she said.

And even would-be exhibitors find the tent area attractive.

En route to a fair at Madison, Wis., New York oil painter Richard Ames Markham said he stopped in Ann Arbor "to take a look at these fairs."

"I just started hitting the fairs this summer," he said, "and I'd like to be in this tent next year at this time.”

But it's not so much security that Markham would be seeking in this setting.

"I like the close quarters," he said. "It’s got real possibilities for meeting the folks you’re painting for. And I like that, the intimacy."

* Maynard Street Scene: Carl Freeman (Beard) Talks With Customers