Big turnout for Beaux Arts Fair
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By John Willard | Saturday, May 12, 2007 |
Suzy Williams and Pat Bruner of LeClaire browse the stainglass work from the Olde Glass Factory on display at the Beaux Arts Fair in Downtown Davenport on May 12. The fair will also be held today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. bringing out 150 artists displaying and selling their work. (Lauren M. Anderson/QUAD-CITY TIMES)
Annual event continues Sunday in Davenport.
Sunny skies and mild temperatures brought a heavy turnout to the opening today of the Beaux Arts Fair, a Mother’s Day weekend tradition in the Quad-Cities for more than 40 years.
More than 170 artists and crafters from seven states set up tents in the juried show. The free event continues from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday on 2nd Street between Iowa and Brady streets and on Pershing Avenue between River Drive and 3rd Street in downtown Davenport.
With pets and children in tow, shoppers perused a variety of arts and crafts to include paintings, hand-woven textiles, jewelry, pottery, woodworking, fine furniture, copper and brass garden art, metal sculpture, stained glass and photography. Contributing to the festival atmosphere were a variety of food vendors dispensing such treats as funnel cakes, corn dogs, lemonade and kettle corn.
Artists and shoppers agreed that the fair, a fundraiser for the Figge Art Museum, enjoys strong community support and attracts quality artisans.
“The crafters are very professional and unique,” Lana Arnold of Davenport said. “The fair brings a new dimension to the availability of shopping, as the numbers it attracts are testament.”
She and her husband, David, had stopped by the tent of fair veteran Tom Voss, of Davenport, who makes fine furniture in a variety of styles that reflect the cultures of Africa, Mexico, China Japan and others. Last year, the Arnolds bought one of his pieces, a cherry end table that they loved for its beautiful curves. “It is very simple and very beautiful,” David said.
Voss, who has been making fine furniture for 20 years, traces his interest in woodworking to his father, who let him experiment with woodworking projects as a youngster. He was especially delighted with the fine weather that blessed this weekend’s fair, a pleasant contrast from earlier shows plagued with high winds and rain.
“This is unusual weather for our fair,” he said.
Another fair veteran showing his work was Tom Hempel, a Davenport painter known for his water colors of Quad-City residences and landmarks.
“It’s a tradition,” he said of the fair. “It’s about eating brats and being out on a beautiful spring day.”
A 1964 graduate of Bettendorf High School, he was encouraged by a teacher to pursue art, an interest that he nurtured through a U.S. Army tour in Vietnam and at Palmer Junior College, where he took more art classes.
In 1975, as a gift for his wife, Marti, he did a painting of the landmark Boyler’s Blacksmith Shop building in the Village of East Davenport. While waiting to have it framed, another customer offered him $50 for it and asked him to do a painting of his own home. Hempel’s wife approved the sale, which led to more commissions and a second career.
Andrea Diehl, a Davenport artist who paints in a variety of styles, used the fair to demonstrate her oil painting talent. As spectators watched, she applied her brushes and paints to a rural scene along side her tent that even had a bowl of water labeled “doggie drinks” for her canine visitors.
“The fair attracts locals and people from out of town. And it is growing and reaching a wider audience,” she said.
Artists from outside of the Quad-Cities included Jay Wennersten, a 1984 Augustana College graduate and a printmaker who lives in Wheaton, Ill. “This show attracts good people who appreciate art. They support the show, and that brings us back,” he said.
Marsha Becker-Kyle, a water color painter from Washington, Mo., said a core of customers in the Quad-Cities keeps her coming back.
Fair chairman Tom Magers, who let children explore their artistic side with spin art and sidewalk chalking outside his Major Art and Hobby, said the fair typically has raised about $30,000 annually for the Figge Art Museum and its predecessor, the Davenport Art Museum. “It offers good quality arts and crafts. If we don’t see quality in an exhibitor we jury them out,” he said.
The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.
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