Try not crying when you see what’s at the Berea Arts Fest…

The Berea Arts Fest is a busy and colorful festival right in the heart of Berea. But the planners at the Arts Fest tell us that more often they see moments throughout this one day festival that brings them and their guests to tears. Here’s why:

Support for young artists. As you shop among more than 80 artist tents keep an eye out for new and emerging artist. For some this may be their first art show. Often our more experienced artists share tips and advice with the new artists, but buying art from emerging artists not only grows art in our community but sets a new artist on a successful career path. Talk to the new artist they’ll tell you how much your purchase means to them.

See things you’ve never seen before. There’s plenty of performers at the Berea Arts Fest. You can see bands, dancers, sculptors and more but take a moment and turn around and look at the guests watching the performance. You see magic moments when a child sees ballet for the first time. You’ll see seniors dancing to favorite songs. And everywhere you’ll see the joy in people’s faces when they find that art that makes them happy. Enjoy your day at the Arts Fest.

Relax, let your creativity shine. The Berea Arts Fest celebrates the creative spirit in us all. We all live busy lives, but on Sunday you get to just enjoy the creative spirit we all have. Celebrate your love of the arts, meet artists, and connect with thousands of other art lovers like you. And when you’re done, you can take a piece of it home with you and continue to let art grow in your life till next year’s Arts Fest.

We’ll see you this Sunday at the Berea Arts Fest, Sunday Sept. 10. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Rain or shine, always free always fun. Bereaartsfest.org

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Gabrielle Zemaitis, 2017 B.A.F. Scholarship Winner

The Berea Arts Fest would like to congratulate Gabrielle Zemaitis on being our 2017 Scholarship winner.  She is a recent graduate from Polaris Career Center and Olmsted Falls High School. She has become proficient in many Adobe programs including Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.  Gabrielle has many awards and honors including: Member of the National Technical Honors Society, Scholar Athlete, Co-captain of the high school golf team, Varsity letter winner and Magna Cum Laude.  Gabrielle aspires to specialize in a career in animation or illustration.  We wish Gabrielle the best of luck as she prepares for her college journey.

Application Deadline is this Friday!!!

Don’t miss out on this years Berea Arts Fest.  The application is due this Saturday.  Print it out and get it in the mail!

Featured Artist – Kate Disch/Last Chance Leather

Kate Disch: I love my job. I get to create pretty purses that make ladies go ohhhh and ahhhh. I get to hear the ohhhh’s and ahhhh’s because I sell my bags at art fairs. I get to visit all the friends I’ve made living and attending art fairs all around Ohio and neighboring states. I get lots of free time to take road trips with my grandson to see this remarkable country. And in between the art fairs and the road trips I get to hang out on my farm with my dogs, horses, chickens, sheep, etc. and watch my garden grow.

I started working with leather while a mediocre student at Ohio State in the early 70’s. The old hippie hand tooled purses and belts could be made with minimal tools in a very small space and that was a whole lot more fun than working at the Burger Boy. After a year or two of peddling from a cart on High Street (I still have my (ORIGINAL – PICTURE) peddler’s license) I opened a shop (WHERE), soon determined that having a shop was too much like having a job, closed the shop and started selling at art fairs. Been at it ever since. The only downside is that I’ve traded for so much art over the years that I’ve run out of places to put it.

Note to self: Put together a blog to show and, hopefully, sell all the excess art… and maybe even a horse.

The name “Last Chance” comes from a small town in Colorado where I was briefly stranded while out seeing the world with my dog back in the mid 70’s. At the time it had a population of maybe a dozen dusty souls…a number that had surged to 23 by the year 2000. The grandson and I are planning a road trip out West for next spring…we’ll need to stop in and see how they’re doing.

Grab a Friend, It’s time to Volunteer!

It’s time to get your art on and volunteer for the 2016 Berea Art fest.  Click here for a printable volunteer sheet. The Berea Arts Fest would not be possible with out the help and support from people like you.  We thank you for 26 years of support.

Featured Artist – Lon Dittrick

Lon Dittrick – As a fine art photographer, my purpose in capturing an image is to evoke in the viewer the emotional response I experienced when witnessing “the moment” before me. This is much different than just “recording” the event in a moment of time through serendipity.
Many of the images I have captured, developed, and chosen to display have brought me literally to tears in appreciation of the astounding beauty and majesty of creation before me during that moment of inspiration. This may vary in scope from a vast expanse of a mountain vista to the glorious minutiae present in the structure of a cactus flower. My desire is for those viewing my images to experience that same emotional response. The creative challenge is to take the image which is seen and emotionally experienced by the photographer, capture it through the very limited and indifferent image capturing machine we call a camera, and reproduce it so that the viewer can “be there” with the photographer at that moment in time, crying those same tears of inspiration.

Featured Artist – Paulette Baker

Paulette Baker – Always a work in progress, my passion is a search for purity. Simple clean lines will accentuate color and pattern. Natural fibers such as chiffon, georgette and charmeuse silks along with blends of bamboo and various weights of linen and wool provide the back-drop for my hand felted, dyed and painted designs. The overall effect may be different but only slightly…just enough to be unusually pleasing. My color pallet can be worn by most but with special attention to the woman who has lived enough to know her style. As a person once trained in the precision of science, I have retired into the freedom of many wonderful colors and textures where non-conformity is embraced.