Marion Arts Festival celebrates 25th anniversary on Saturday

MARION - The competition is so stiff for the annual Marion Arts Festival that director Deb Bailey never made the cut with her jewelry art.

'I used to exhibit at most of the juried shows between here and Des Moines,” she said, so that experience has proved helpful in the 14 years she's served as the Marion festival's director. Her own art has fallen by the wayside, however.

'I haven't lifted a finger in 14 years, now that I know what great jewelry looks like,” said Bailey, 55, of Cedar Rapids.

Consistently rated in the upper echelon of art fairs nationwide - and small art shows in particular - don't let the Marion festival's footprint fool you. For 25 years, this marriage dubbed 'fine art and flip-flops” has lured thousands of visitors to stroll among 50 artists' booths that on Saturday will again turn Marion's City Square Park into a daylong celebration of art and community.

'Its reputation far and wide precedes it,” said Cedar Rapids painter John Paul Schafer, 46, who is excited about his first year as an exhibitor. He actually was accepted in 2016, but also was accepted into the nation's top art show, held the same weekend in St. Louis, and opted to go there.

Bailey has seen overlap from artists applying to both shows, hoping to be invited to one or the other.

'If they're willing to go to St. Louis, they're willing to go to Marion if an invitation is received,” she said. 'They apply to us as a backup. ...

We have benefited from that in terms of quality of applications.”

Last year was Schafer's first foray into the Midwest art market circuit, and he marveled over how many people had heard of the Marion Arts Festival.

'Every time somebody asks me about it, the next thing out of their mouth is, ‘I have tried for years and years and years and I cannot get into that show,' ”

he said.

That's no accident. Campbell Steele Gallery artist Priscilla Steele, who founded the event with her husband, Craig Campbell, handpicked the artists for the first show in 1992.

'The quality of the event was established from the very beginning,” Bailey said.

Over the years, it has grown into a $100,000 operation that takes year-round planning, a 21-member advisory board, and 80 volunteers at the site. The art is now selected by jury, and 21 of the 50 artists are new to the festival. Another five students were selected to sell their wares in the new Emerging Artists Program.

This year's jurors - painter Michael Ryan Sr. of Cedar Rapids, photographer Mark Tade of Iowa City and Kate Kunau, associate curator at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art - chose from 358 entries representing 30 states and Canada. An average of four artists who have won awards in the past are invited to return, and are exempt from the jury process.

A national online system has doubled the number of applications in the past eight years, with some coming from as far as Europe and Israel.

'They're all professional artists and like to set up a season of shows, starting on one coast and heading to the other,” Bailey said, so Midwest shows have a natural attraction.

Applicants pay a $25 jury fee, and if chosen, pay $250 for a booth. In return, they may reap between $3,000 and $5,000 in sales, Bailey said.

'We're looking for that sweet spot where the quality of art intersects the broadest possible audience,” Bailey said. Saturday's expected 12,000 visitors will find drawings, paintings, mixed media, ceramics, fiber, glass, jewelry, sculpture, wood and photography among the offerings.

Recommended price points typically begin at $250 for paintings, up to $3,000 or $5,000; and $50 to $70 for jewelry, 'reaching up into the hundreds for their finer works,” Bailey said. 'A lot of attendees see a piece and they just fall in love with it and they're able to say to themselves, ‘I will wear this forever' or ‘I will have this on my wall forever' or ‘This will sit on my mantelpiece forever,' and that can make the decision for them.”

Schafer has found his niche in taking large-scale paintings to art markets, ranging in price from under $1,000 to $2,000 or $4,000-plus. Buyers who have the space also have the money to pay those prices, he said, and several festival customers have commissioned even larger works.

A painter for 27 years, Schafer was wary that he wouldn't have the right kind of pieces or volume to take his art on the road to festivals and markets. All of his worries have been dispelled.

'I love it,” he said. 'What it gives me is that instant feedback. This art-fair selling has been the best way, the fastest way, the most rewarding way for me to engage with my collectors - at the very least, with my admirers,” he said, adding that the festival setting puts everyone at ease, and conversations evolve naturally.

'People are very honest about how they respond to things, and I like that,” he said. 'I like when people are drawn into my booth because of something they saw as they were passing by. Usually it's the color or the dynamics in the paintings.”

He also enjoys interacting with the other artists, and seeing the way people with science backgrounds are drawn to the energy of his abstract works, which explore the intersections of sciences and art.

'I wish I had done this a long time ago,” he said.

IF YOU GO

- What

: Marion Arts Festival

- When

: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

- Where

: City Square Park, 1001 Seventh Ave., Marion

- Admission

: Free

- Features

: 50 artist booths, five student Emerging Artists booths, half-marathon and 5K, demonstrations, food vendors

- Empty Bowls Project

: Sale of bowls made by Linn County K-12 students with proceeds raising more than $92,000 for area food banks since 1996. This year's Art in the Depot project lets the public make bowls for next year's Empty Bowls sales.

- Details: Marionartsfestival.com

l Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com