This year’s Kimball Arts Festival featured work from almost 200 jury-selected artists in 13 categories, including ceramics, sculpture and glass.
Throughout the three-day event, white tents filled with different styles of art dot Main Street from top to bottom. Visitors come by the hundreds each day to wander the booths, marvel at the creativity of artists and, in some cases, scoop up the must-have pieces that catch their eye.
But it’s also a place to be inspired, with interactive stations and outdoor art spaces that allow people of all ages to tap into their creativity.
At the Creation Station on Town Lift Plaza Saturday, Kimball Arts Center Outreach and Curatorial Specialist Emma Lynch said around 600 people try their hand at making festival-inspired crafts throughout the event.
“It really adds to the festival that you can be inspired by artists on the street, and then get your chance at your own hands-on art making,” she said.
Eight-year-old Karlie Baldwin was at there decorating a boredom bag with bright hues of purple and orange.
“A boredom bag is when you're bored, you can pull out a stick and it gives you ideas what you can do when you're bored.”
Karlie said one idea she is adding in her boredom bag is to read a book. She drew a “special lamp” on the bag because she “loves lamps.”
At the same time Karlie was filling her bag with ideas, Byron Janssen was at a nearby table making window art which mimics stained glass. His piece looked like a turtle.
“I just thought it would be fun to make the turtle,” he said.
The festival also featured an outdoor pottery-making station called Studio on Main. It’s an extension of a year-round program at the Kimball Arts Center teaching kids of all ages to throw clay on a pottery wheel or build a piece with their hands.
Hunter Currie, a teacher at the station, said Studio on Main is meant to make pottery more accessible to a broader audience. He said around 200 people dirty their hands with clay to create something during the festival.
A member of the Kimball Arts Center coached Quindry Pass through making his first bowl on a pottery wheel.
“It was pretty fun,” Quindry said. “He, otherwise I feel like I would’ve messed it up, he was good at, like, walking me through how to hold my hands properly and press it out.”
Studio on Main, Quindry said, was a great way to introduce kids to pottery and get them to be creative.
Quindry’s cousin Brayden Boercker also learned how to use the pottery wheel.
“It was really fun because it's such a new experience,” he said. “I never really thought that I would have enjoyed it that much, but I did.”
The Kimball Arts Festival is one of the top-ranked art festivals in the country because of interactive aspects like these which foster creativity.
