Park City’s Main Street, the site of the annual Arts Festival, was very busy Friday night. Locals came out to enjoy the festival free of charge and the popular rock band Fat Paw headlined the four hours of live music on two stages.
Over the next two days, crowds were consistent as they walked up and down the street looking for art that caught their eye. But it wasn’t the arts festival of years past when crowds were so big there were people two or three deep looking at jewelry or trying on hats or thumbing through prints.
Kimball Arts Center Executive Director Aldy Milliken says fewer people on the street doesn’t necessarily mean less sales for the artists. He says the Kimball has strategically placed the artists booths on the street and now sell only one-day admission, instead of weekend passes.
“We put all the booths on the interior. So, there's now two pathways, if you will, for our public to walk up and down Main Street," he said. "That's spread out the artists. It also allows people to go in and out of the stores a lot easier and the restaurants on Main Street. Just the architecture is a lot better. We spread it out...giving people way more room to look at the artworks. And then also the admissions into the fair itself means that the people that are here really want to see art. They're going to pay $12 or $15, depending on how they registered to enter. They also really sort of filter out the people that are here for the art.”
The arts festival is a juried event that almost 1,200 artists hope to get into every year. And Milliken says it’s important the mix is changed up.
“We're trying to do two things each year - maintain a really high level, and then also making sure that we're having an influx of new artists each year,” he said. “That's the hard part, we have to commit to turning over 10% to 15% of the artists that are here this year. And that means that some of the artists that are here, we have to kindly say, 'Hey, listen, we love your work, but you've been doing this for five or 10 years, we'd like to give the opportunity for somebody else, because we have a super long waiting list.'”
But some local artists say they feel like they’ve been left behind.
“We expect that to happen. So that's not new for me anyway, from any city I've lived in, whether it's you know, Louisville, Kentucky, or Stockholm, Sweden, you always want the local artists to advocate for themselves," he said. "We set a bar. We do say to our local community, a certain percentage will get in to the fair, and then if they don't get in, we try to give a reason, or we try to be open-minded for the next year. And that that's just kind of the way it is, again. We want to maintain the standard for our audiences and it's important to have those standards.”
As someone who was involved in formatting the sustainable tourism plan and cultural masterplan, which were approved in Summit County last year, Milliken said he believes the results can be seen, even at the arts festival.
“I think we should remember that the quality of the experience, the quality of the artwork, in terms of the arts fest, is really where we're leaning towards,” he said. “And it's a fine balance.”
As of Sunday morning, Milliken says the group was already above its earned income goal for the festival. All of that support will finance local programs with classes for children and adults as well as exhibitions year-round.
