Art fair a ‘minor’ success, may return in 2008

Characterizing last September’s art fair as a “minor success,” Riverside Village Manager Kathleen Rush said last week that the village will seek to host similar events in the future, but that the event’s organization could be strengthened.

In 2007, Riverside will likely forego a fall art fair, but will seek to add a craft fair element to the Chamber of Commerce’s Oktoberfest. A fine arts fair, which would exclude “craft” vendors, may be held in the first half of 2008.

“The fair got good feedback from the community and good feedback from the Economic Development Commission [which sponsored the art fair]. The participants from out of town were appreciative and thought it was a nice opportunity to get more familiar with Riverside,” Rush said. “On those points, we scored.”

As for future improvements, Rush said she’d like to see a larger list of artists participating and for event organizers to distinguish better between fine arts vs. crafts.

Last year’s event was organized by Chicago Special Events Management, which received a management fee of $7,000 for services that included recruiting artists and advertising the event. Rush expressed some frustration with the way the event was organized, but said Chicago Special Events “was able to pull things together. They put a lot of effort into it. It beat my expectations.”

“I was pleased with the outstanding quality and offerings, and I’m unsure we would have been able to do this ourselves,” Rush said.

One of the original selling points of the art fair-a “chalkfest” designed to draw artists who would produce works of art onsite-never materialized.

The chalkfest idea was the brainchild of Riverside resident Donald Spatny, who had experienced such events in California. He pitched the idea to the Economic Development Committee two years ago and envisioned the chalkfest as the linchpin of a more ambitious art event.

Spatny stated he was disappointed by the art fair.

“We ended up with something completely different, held over at Centennial Industrial Site next to the dumpster which was, in my opinion, pathetic,” Spatny said in an e-mail response to the Landmark.

In terms of budgeting for last year’s event, Rush said she had planned for the event to lose $5,000, and that the final numbers were basically in line with that assumption. According to a financial statement provided to the Economic Development Commission last week, expenses were roughly $4,000 above revenues, although the statement did not indicate that part of the management fee for the event planning firm was paid for by the Chamber of Commerce. In addition, the village also expended another $2,800 for expenses related to event set-up by Public Works personnel, security, etc.

“I think [the loss] was acceptable,” Rush said. “There are a lot of costs for any event that are just foregone expenses and are all costs no one sees, like for set-up and overtime.”

For future events, Rush said she’d solicit other event management companies to submit proposals for organizing the fine art fair tentatively slated for 2008.

Hank Zemola, CEO of Chicago Special Events, said he would be submitting a proposal for a spring fine arts fair in 2008, adding that Riverside is an attractive location for such an event, despite the so-so showing last fall.

“There’s unlimited potential,” Zemola said. “I can see in 3-5 years where you’ve got a couple hundred really upscale fine arts people. It’ll be something the community and whole region out there can be proud of.”

Zemola said part of the problem last fall from his company’s standpoint was simply the timing. September, he said, is one of his company’s biggest months, and Riverside’s small event just didn’t get the kind of attention it needed. A spring event, Zemola said, would allow the company to give the art fair “the time and care it needs.”

As for a craft fair at the 2007 Oktoberfest, Rush said she would ask the village’s Recreation Department to handle that initiative, which would be smaller in scope than last year’s art fair. Rush said she also needs to discuss the possibility of adding a craft fair to Oktoberfest with the Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors that event.