Monday, November 19, 2007

Artcrawl Wins! Best Art Festival in Houston

Artcrawl- 27%
Art Car Parade- 21%
Museum District Day- 13%
September- 13%
Fotofest- 10%
Westheimer Street Festival- 8%
Arthouston- 2%
Bayou City Arts Festival- 2%



Is it disingenuous to put up a poll about the best art festival when only one is in the near future? Yeah, I guess so. Forgive my boosterism, but the Artcrawl was on my mind. I'm glad some people agreed with me that it is better than the rest! The Art Car Parade is a clear favorite for anyone who likes drinking beer in the summer and is quite a quirky way to introduce some art to the parade crowd. Museum District Day buses in the suburbanites to the museums between Midtown and Hermann park- a good photo-op and great for the kids but without the biggest effect on the programming of either the MFAH or the CAMH.

September? I knew this wouldn't make too much sense but it feels quite festival-like when there are 30-some openings in a weekend and everyone is buzzing about the kick-off of the season with big names and big sales (hopefully). Fotofest will be on everyone's plate soon enough, this biennial is back this spring with their new twin themes, China and Transformers [sic]. The fact that the shoestring Westheimer Street Festival beat out the two big money art festivals Arthouston and Bayou City just goes to show- know your audience. Arthouston in the early summer typically is full of work for the match-it-to-the-couch crowd, and Bayou City Art Festival seems to deal in trinkets and country-themed fare. While Westfest doesn't make any money I'm glad some people like it how it is.

1 comments:

Kimmers said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Art crawl!Big UP!

And after being the Art Car Director and Artistic Director at the Orange Show for the past five years - truly appreciate the art car smooches - but ...

Seriously, "Bayou City Art Festival seems to deal in trinkets and country-themed fare." Have you been lately?

I am the new Executive Director charged with producing both the Downtown and Memorial Festival - and I can say, weather is better for both fests than summer events - we have beer and margaritas mmmmmm!

AND both are top rated national fine art festivals - not a craft or trinket fair in the lot.

With only 300 slots per festival - we get over 900 applications. The jury is held at MFA and this years judges included:

Memorial Park Jurors – 2008

1. Bart Truxillo, ACA Board Member
2. Nancy Kopriva, Artist
3. Adrian de la Cerda, Program Manager, Orange Show Center for Visionary Art
4. Carolyn Rich, Artist
5. Julie Farr, Center for Contemporary Craft, Executive Director
6. Cindi Strauss, Curator, Modern & Contemporary Decorative Arts and Design
7. Sharon Kopriva , Artist
8. Karen Rezai, Booker Lowe Gallery

Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park is the Number 3 Fine Arts Festival in the nation - and the food and entertainment makes for quite the day!

Where have you been? ;-) Do come out!

As ever, thanks for playing!

Happy Day!

kim stoilis