Logan County Alliance offers overview of Arts in the Park Festival

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[May 02, 2015]  LINCOLN - On Tuesday afternoon, the Logan County Alliance and Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce hosted a meeting for downtown business owners and managers. Part of the purpose of the meeting was to give business owners an overview of the two upcoming festivals that will be held in the downtown district.

The group talked at length about the upcoming Pigs and Swigs Festival and heard from planning committees via Chris Graue and Michelle Bauer in addition to Cara Barr, events coordinator for the LCA.

Barr, along with Andi Hake of the Alliance and Nicole Cox of the Chamber, also offered up some quick information about the second festival of the season, the Arts in the Park. Arts in the Park will be held on July 18th and 19th.

With the singular Lincoln Art and Balloon Festival this year expanding into four festivals, 'Arts in the Park' is the 'Art' component of the original festival.

Arts in the Park will take place in Latham Park as usual. Barr said that for this festival, the only street closure that will affect the downtown area will be Pekin Street directly adjacent to Latham Park.

The basic concept of the art in the park will be the same as in previous years. Artists will set up their works for display, and the public will be welcome to purchase their pieces. There will still be an artist judging event, and monetary awards will be given for the best art on display.

The Arts in the Park event will also include the Taste of Wine component from the original festival, but with several new twists to make it more interesting and interactive. There will be a wine tasting event on Pekin Street with an open air set-up, as well as a tent and live music. There will be gourmet food vendors at the corner of Pekin and McLean Streets.

Barr said that the food and wine tasting would add a bit of an elegant feel to this festival.

Currently, there are wineries as well as one craft beer vendor planning to attend the wine tasting.
In addition, Ashley Trueblood of Chatham will be bringing some unique paintings representing Logan County just for this event. Trueblood heads up Picasso on the Prairie, which offers painting classes and a special event that couples painting with wine tasting.

Barr said that the decision had been made not to use the park’s band stand for music this year because it poses a safety issue, and there are also issues with electricity.

Hake said she wanted to clarify and correct some misinterpretations that have been posted on social media. She said the Arts in the Park event is not for kids, and there will be no children activities in the park.

She said that when the LCA was looking at the date for the Arts in the Park, they realized that the Family Fun Day hosted by Open Arms Christian Fellowship was the same weekend at Scully Park.

Hake said they called on OACF Pastor Larry Crawford and discussed the festival date with him. He took it to his church elders and congregation. Hake said, “I wouldn’t say they were ecstatic, but they liked the idea and were okay with it. I want to make it clear. There are people who think we bullied our way in, and that is not the case at all. If they had had any issues with it, at all we would have gone to a different weekend.”

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She said that while the Arts in the Park and the Family Fun Day were going to remain as two separate events, they did complement each other in that in Latham Park there will be an adult only event and in Scully, the event will be very much family oriented.

Hake also said that in the past Christian Child Care had set up a kid’s art activity tent in Latham Park. They were approached but new director is still in transition. For this year, the tent would be too much of an undertaking. Hake said they might return in future years, and if they do the LCA will work to accommodate them perhaps through a partnership with the Family Fun Day.

For the art component, it was reported that there are currently approximately 30 artists signed up. The goal for this year is to have a total of 40 artists. At its peak, the Art Fair brought in about 80 artists. However, that number has declined each year for the past three or four years. Hake said the reason for this is that attending these types of festivals is time-consuming and costly for the artists. Many of these artists are now turning to internet marketing where there are specific websites that permit them to sell their art with a lot less effort.

Barr talked about the marketing of the festivals as four events, saying that each event was going to have its target audience and that advertising would be more specific to that audience.

Hake also talked about the target marketing for the various festivals. She said that logos had been designed for Pigs and Swigs, as well as Arts in the Park. She had conducted some local research with those logos.

The logos had been shown to a variety of people and as she sat and watched the reactions she saw that they reacted differently to each one. She said for example, of those who lit up at the Pigs and Swigs, many were much less interested in Arts in the Park.

As the meeting came to an end, Cox shared that rack cards had been printed to promote the Pigs and Swigs and the Arts in the Park. She encouraged business owners and managers to take some cards and have them at their checkout stations for shoppers.

Those cards will also be distributed to other locations throughout the community to help promote the two downtown events.

[Nila Smith]

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