Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
A Preview of the Morning Glory Art Fair
Wisconsin Craft is a not-for-profit organization that hosts a couple of annual events, including the Morning Glory Art Fair, which is going to take place next weekend on August 10th and 11th. And joining us is Jean Wells. She's a potter and also past president of Wisconsin Craft. Tell us about the Morning Glory Art Fair because so many people look forward to it. Yes. This show has been around for 49 years. It is our 49th year of doing it, so it is a well-known show. We get a lot of attendees. This year we'll have about 130 artists plus six emerging artists on the plaza in front of Pfizer Forum. Now how do you select the artists who are going to participate? So it is a competitive selection. The artists are juried in, so there's a program that we use where artists submit images of their work, and it's called a blind jury. So we have three jurors that are either artists or gallery owners or professors that actually look at the images of the work and they're scored, and then the highest scores in each of the categories then get selected for the show. Now you mentioned the categories, and there's what 10 different categories of art that we'll see? Yes. Ceramics is a category. We have fiber arts, which includes leather, wearable, jewelry as a separate category, glass, mixed media, painting and drawing are judged together. Photography and digital art are also judged together, and then there's printmaking, sculpture and wood. I'm going to put you on the spot, Gene. Which of those categories do you think draw the most people in terms of interest? Well, it is interesting because people do kind of have a medium that they're interested in. At least that seems like as a potter myself, a lot of people who purchase my pottery also purchase pottery from other artists at the shows. And then there are, of course, women and men who just love jewelry, and they'll go to the different jewelers around the show, and a lot of people are drawn to 2D art, painting and drawing and photography, and of course, prints are always a more affordable way to purchase art, and those are also available, and people tend to love that. Now you understood you've also got six emerging artists that you're going to feature? People we haven't seen before. Yes, so this is the fourth year that Wisconsin Craft has wanted to support emerging artists, and we've been working with the Peck School of the Arts, the faculty there, picked several students without standing work, and they then come to the art fair first time, they've never been to an art fair before, and they are there all in the same booth, booth 40 this year, displaying and selling their work that they've created at UWM. And next Sunday, you are starting something for the first time that you've never done before. Yes, it was a really great idea created by one of our board members from Wisconsin Craft, Kathy DeVries, she is also an artist. As a way to kind of engage the public, where they can learn more about the artist and what they create, so it's called the Breakfast Club. It starts in the morning before the show opens, but it is a little fundraiser. We're charging $30 per person, and it includes, you know, a simple breakfast and some coffee, and then Kathy has selected four different artists working in different medias, and the group will then go to each of those artists, the artist will talk about their work, you can ask questions, so on and so forth, so it's a really great way to engage people who are curious about learning more, and it's a great way to start the morning, because then the show opens at 10, and then you can go into the show and feel a lot more confident about what you might be seeing and more comfortable asking artist questions as you attend. You know, and that's an interesting point, because just because you go to the Morning Glory Art Fair, it doesn't mean you have to buy something, you can just sort of wander around, talk to artists, and learn more about their craft. Exactly, so this is the way we're kind of hoping to draw people in and make them feel a little more comfortable doing that sort of thing. Now if you want to get more information about the Morning Glory Art Fair, taking place next Saturday and Sunday, where do we go? We have two websites you can go to specifically the morninggloryartfair.com, or you can go to www.wisconsincraft.org. Jean Wells from the Wisconsin Craft Association, it is always great to talk with you. Thanks so much, Libby. Have a great day.