In Brief: Wyandotte Street Art Fair 2012

WHAT
51st Annual Wyandotte Street Art Fair

DATES & TIMES
Wednesday, July 11 – Saturday, July 14; Open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Entertainment until 11 p.m.

FEATURES
More than 200,000 visitors, 300 fine artists, 25 restaurants, and a multitude of local merchants. 

As one of the largest fine art fairs in the state of Michigan, the 51st annual Wyandotte Street Art Fair attracts fine artists from across the state, region and nation to showcase their work, and offers a platform to expand community awareness of the creative arts through a quality event that provides cultural enrichment to all ages in a fun and festive environment. This year's fair will fill the streets of historic downtown Wyandotte with fascinating sights as more than 300 fine artists, musicians, performers, exhibitors and restaurants take part in the fair. Join us for a very special artistic event. Highlights for this year’s Wyandotte Street Art Fair include:

The Heritage Newspapers Children’s Area: A family fun children’s activity area open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The Detroit Institute of the Arts will be hosting a hands-on creative workshop to provide enjoyable and enriching experiences for visitors with all levels of familiarity with art. The Children’s Emporium is a longstanding feature of the event with all artists in the fair asked to donate at least one piece of art for purchase by children 12 and younger, with prices ranging from $1 to $5. With the goal of helping younger children to begin developing an appreciation of the arts, proceeds support the Wyandotte Street Art Fair Committee’s youth fine arts outreach program.

Entertainment: Visitors can enjoy an eclectic selection of talent in the , both day and night. Headliners on the riverfront stage include: on Wednesday night starting at 9 p.m., on Thursday and Friday nights starting at 7 p.m. and on Saturday starting at 9:30 p.m. Saturday’s entertainment will feature all local bands from Wyandotte and throughout Downriver. Street entertainment will showcase a variety of local artists with unusual and eccentric skills. 

Food: Enjoy the tastes from more than 25 food vendors. Fair food and beverages such as elephant ears, butterfly chips and fresh squeezed lemonade never disappoint. Remember to stop into one of our many downtown restaurants and enjoy a cold beverage or a spicy Thai meal.

Retro Row: Put on your favorite tie dyed shirt and bell bottoms and join us near the corner of Biddle and Sycamore for a blast from the 60’s past at Retro Row. Featured artists include Carl Lundgren, a well-known fantasy artist and rock poster illustrator who has created poster art for seminal bands such as The Who, Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd.

Non-Profits: Dedicated to fostering a community of active and responsible citizens, the Wyandotte Street Art Fair invites local non-profit organizations to set up displays showcasing the programs and services offered to help children and families throughout our community.

Live Green Fair: New for 2012, the Live Green Fair will feature healthy and ecologically sound living. A stage showcasing live acoustic music, booths highlighting earth friendly products and services, beer tent and food concessions with vegetarian/healthy foods. Organized into three separate sections. 1) The Green Home Show features everything you need for your home–energy, conservation and more. 2) The Veggie Show features vegetarian and vegan diet options. 3) The Michigan Health and Wellness Show focuses on all forms of healing and health activities, from the traditional to the natural. Wyandotte is on the leading edge of the green world, with the installation of a geothermal project that will cover much of the town. We are very excited to have this fresh addition to our fair.

Find “Art”: The official Wyandotte Street Art Fair logo, named “ART,” is one of the earliest creative images representing the fair. Art’s likeness was found on an early Street Art Fair poster in the archival collections of the Wyandotte Museums. In celebration of the 51st anniversary of the Fair, ART gets an updated look as a superhero, thanks to the talents of local comic artist, Tony Miello. Every year, ART will be getting a new interpretation by a Fair artist. Look for Super ART to make his debut. Once again this year, “ART” will be hidden among the art. Find “ART” and bring him back to the Information Booth to win an official “Find Art in Wyandotte” keepsake.

Clock Tower Crafters Show: Located on First and Maple Streets, the Clock Tower Craft Show offers a variety of hand-made crafts and gifts.

Volunteer Program: The Wyandotte Street Art Fair is dedicated to promote and expand community awareness of the creative arts; to offer the artist and visitor alike the opportunity to meet one another in a hospitable and festive atmosphere; and to stimulate a sense of civic unity and pride through the dynamics of cultural understanding. For our 2012 fair, we are pleased to announce the inaugural year of our “I Heart Art” Volunteer Program. By expanding our staff to include volunteers, we can continue creating positive vendor, visitor, volunteer and staff impressions. Wyandotte Street Art Fair staff and committee members are appreciative of our volunteers and are looking forward to working with members of the community. Those interested should contact the Volunteer Coordinator at museum@wyan.org or by calling 734-324-7284.

Sponsors: Sponsors for the 2012 Wyandotte Street Art Fair include and Oakwood hospitals. Additional sponsors will be displaying and selling their products at numerous sponsor booths along Biddle Avenue near Elm and Maple Streets. A Friend of the Fair sponsorship allows for donations at the $100 level with benefits including a two-year membership and associated privileges, with donor names listed on the website, swag bag and a window cling to show that they support the arts in Wyandotte.

(Information courtesy of the city of Wyandotte)

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