The leaves are just barely turning in Rochester Municipal Park as almost 300 white canopies spread out around the 30-acre greenery. This weekend the Arts and Apples Festival begins in earnest, launching its 51st year of bringing people together around art and entertainment. Organizers expect to draw 200,000 visitors and raise enough funds for art and education programming all year long at the Paint Creek Center for the Arts.
As one of the leading fairs among the 14 largest art fairs that stretch from May to the end of September, it is also one of the oldest. The fair was started by John Solverson in 1965 as a way to bring people together in Rochester, which was mostly apple orchards at the time.
With the help of the Pontiac Press and teachers from Rochester High School, they pitched circus tents and ran juried art galleries in each one. The Boy Scouts parked cars, the Jaycees did the manual labor and the Kiwanis members did the electricity. The crowds—numbering 25,000—took the organizers by surprise. But it kept growing each year.
"After 20 years the festival got bigger than the community could handle and they established the Paint Creek Center for the Arts, a nonprofit organization that would teach art classes, hold exhibits and mentor artists all year long," says Tami Salisbury, the Center's executive director. She notes that 80 percent of the organization's revenue is culled during the three-day-festival in the park. "The venue is gorgeous, the Paint Creek runs through it, the deer graze on apples and children skip through the playscape."
Metromode interviewed Salisbury about her formula for generating crowds and assuring artists that they will make between $5,000 and $10,000 in revenue on one of 18 categories of juried art.
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Metromode: How do artists select what fairs they will showcase their work?
Salisbury: More than 700 artists apply each year to be part of Arts and Apples. Sunshine Artist Magazine ranks us 15th among the 100 best fine art and design shows in the nation. But the jury process is intense. We have 18 different categories including 3D, painting, drawing, wood and leather. There's an onsite jury and an online jury so people's work is reviewed twice and the process changes each year. We get the very top artists from across the country, which is a great draw for the community. They know they won't see the same work they have seen all summer because the mix is so diverse.
We turned up in the top ranking by Sunshine Artist magazine based on their evaluation of sales, artist treatment, overall quality and other aspects, such as the food choices, entertainment and layout.
This year we'll have everything from high school marching bands, Latin jazz, Motown and local dance troupes. We'll have a food court to accommodate every palate, especially apple dishes. We do a lot of social media to help draw people to the festival.
What's the worst thing that can happen?
The festival is almost entirely weather-driven. Three years ago it rained so hard the vendors went home Saturday afternoon. The only beings on the grounds were the ducks, who had a great time. Sunday was warm and sunny. We had so many people we had to call the Boy Scouts to help us park cars.
You had a long career in Detroit before you took this post. How did this help you with this job?
My family moved to Rochester three years ago and I began job hunting. This was the perfect match for my skills. I'd spent 11 years directing the Eight Mile Boulevard Association, helping find grants, working with a wide variety of city officials and personalities, helping people drop their agendas and work for the common good. My biggest disappointment was that we didn't get a race track approved for the Michigan State Fairgrounds and the state shuttered the facility. It has sat empty for more than a decade, making it even harder to find a new, viable tenant.
What's been your impact to the Paint Creek Center for the Arts and the art fair?
When I got here the organization had been running in the red for almost a decade. We have an all new staff, the board is new, and we refocused the organization with more accountability. I was used to strategic planning at the 8 Mile organization and brought the best concepts here. We rebranded the organization, came up with a new logo and website that looked fresh. The timing was perfect as we had a 50th anniversary.
Do you still face challenges?
I can't say we all sit around the campfire singing Kumbaya. We've sought more collaboration among the multiple communities involved,
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sponsors and volunteers.
My economic development background helps. We operate the Paint Creek Center in an 1880 building. Revenue from Arts and Apples has helped us make $80,000 improvements to the windows, air conditioning and more. We teach 50 different art classes each term and we host numerous art openings. We accomplish a lot with only five employees, because we have a lot of volunteers.
Arts and Apples runs September 9 - 11 in the Rochester Municipal Park at 400 Sixth Street in downtown Rochester. Here's more information.
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