Seen in Worcester: stART on the Street 2010

Sorry for the delay in getting a new post done! I have a few ready to go, but it's been a crazy week. Stay tuned for some photos from last Monday's "Great Deluge"...

stART on the Street has quickly become an institution in the city, one of those events that you simply cannot miss. Many people have discussed why this is, whether it's their great luck with weather, a byproduct of the burgeoning "buy local" movement, that our area has a particularly dense population of quality artisans, etc. I think these things are all true and worth considering, but I think there's two factors that stand above all:

1) This is truly a Worcester event. It's a great example of what an event can look like when the focus isn't "let's do that really cool thing Providence/Boston/Hartford does, and let's do it just like they do it". Yes, I understand that having a festival of the arts is not exactly a re-invention of the wheel, but the event seems designed and located to showcase what is special about our specific community. Near the south end of stART is the C.C. Lowell parking lot. C.C. Lowell, for those who don't know, is a Worcester institution. They've been an independent and local art supply store since they opened in 1852. Up the avenue a bit is L.B. Wheaton, an independent and local photography supply store in business since 1895. There are a bunch of small shops right by L.B. Wheaton selling artisinal goods. Towards the north end of the festival, you have one-of-a-kind spots like Jelly's Discs and That's Entertainment!. If you haven't been to That's Entertainment!, you haven't been to Worcester. At Elm Street, you have what I would consider to be an unlikely partner in Barnstorm Cycles, although custom building motorcycles is definitely art. Then, the north end of stART is capped with Elm Park and the Art in the Park installation. This doesn't even account for the local booth vendors, who are far too numerous to mention. It all just works so well together. These businesses have embraced the event, and it has embraced them. Which brings me to my second point...

2) stART is run by a crew of people who love it. If you want to have a great event, don't start from city government and work down. Start from a group of people with a passion to showcase, and work up. I'm not going to scream about city government like many people do, but one thing I'm sure of is that city government does not know as much about running a successful arts festival as artists do. By keeping this event in the hands of people who truly care about growing the integrity along with the crowd size, we all win. This year's expanded focus on showcasing demonstrations by artisans is just one example of keeping the event fresh and based in an appreciation of creativity. A HUGE shout-out to the stART organizers and volunteers.

Anyway, here's some photos I took at this year's event. They are in no particular order of time or importance. If you'd like to see more, my entire album is open to all via Facebook: