Organizers aim to make July 4 event become the ‘Ann Arbor of the west’
By Dave Alexander
The Muskegon Chronicle
MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) — After an initial year of success and plans for the second year well underway, the new Lakeshore Art Festival has some lofty longer-term goals.
The Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce — which last summer rescued the 50-plus years of downtown Muskegon art fairs over the Fourth of July — has a specific vision of where the two-day event will be in the next three to five years.
“We want this to become the Ann Arbor of the west,” Muskegon chamber President Cindy Larsen told The Muskegon Chronicle. “If anyone is interested in art festivals, we want Muskegon to be No. 1 on their minds.”
The chamber wants to take the Muskegon event to a whole new level, she said. National reputations have been built for Michigan art festivals, which has six of the top-50-rated art festivals in the United States, including those in Ann Arbor and St. Joseph — both of which are in the Top 10. Ann Arbor leads the way with its famed “street fair.”
“We want Muskegon to be about quality art and crafts,” Larsen continued. “We are talking about making this festival a destination for fine arts and crafts. Ann Arbor is overwhelming in size and scope. We will not be that big but of greater quality. We want to be a destination location for a family-fun event.”
Whether the Lakeshore Art Festival — July 4-5 this summer — becomes the “next big thing” in Muskegon festival history is yet to be seen. But tourism promoters like what is happening so far.
“The Lakeshore Art Festival and Taste of Muskegon have the ability to grow and greatly expand,” said Bob Lukens, Muskegon County community development director, including the food festival June 20-21 in Hackley Park. “Due to volunteers and good event management, we have several successful festivals from Unity (Christian music festival), Muskegon Bike Time and the Michigan Irish Music Festival.”
What, if any, event takes hold at Muskegon County’s Heritage Landing on the evening of the Fourth of July to provide community fireworks and holiday entertainment is yet to be determined. At least, the day-time art festival event has laid a solid foundation, according to Jonathan Seyferth, director of Downtown Muskegon Now — the downtown development and promotion agency.
“The Lakeshore Art Festival can grow into one of the state’s great art events,” Seyferth said. “We can rival Ann Arbor and Traverse City and communities of that caliber.”
The future of downtown Fourth of July art fairs was unknown after Muskegon’s Summer Celebration’s sponsorship of Art in the Park ended with the music festival’s demise in 2011. A Lansing-based promoter’s attempt to keep the Muskegon art fair tradition alive in 2012 left vendors and festival-goers unhappy.
As musical festival organizers stepped forward with the Coast West Music Festival at Muskegon County’s Heritage Landing in 2013, the Muskegon chamber took on the art festival cause. Coast West financially failed after one year.
The chamber immediately hired CMF Marking LLC and Carla Flanders of Norton Shores to resurrect and rebrand the event the Lakeshore Art Festival.
“After doing our research, we found that chambers of commerce have been the driving force behind successful art festivals in tourism communities throughout the state,” Larsen said. “It is a win-win for our members getting them engaged and it can produce income to underwrite other chamber programs.”
The initial Lakeshore Art Festival in 2013 was not only a success with vendors and patrons but also financially. The $100,000-budgeted festival netted the chamber about $20,000, Larsen said.
Muskegon patterned its art fair investigating similar chamber-sponsored events in Grand Haven, Petoskey and Charlevoix, Larsen said. Not only does the event draw people into downtown Muskegon and improve the overall community image, but it provides business opportunities for many of the chamber’s small business members, she said.
The strategy is to attract the fine art vendors for a juried show in Hackley Park from across the country and to have the craft, food and beverage items provided by vendors in Muskegon or the Lakeshore region, Flanders said.
“Our success that first year was based on a combination of people in the community embracing it and having a timely weekend event that was a family-fun outing,” said Flanders, who through her marketing business has done event organizing that has included Tulip Time in Holland and ArtPrize events in Grand Rapids.
Flanders and chamber officials first brought together those who historically have been involved in the Muskegon art festival, which traces its history back to 1961 and the old Seaway Festival. The organizers also brought new people to the table in recreating the event through a partnership with the Muskegon Museum of Art and its volunteer force, Larsen said.
Again centered around Hackley Park, the craft and food vendors were set up from Clay to West Western Avenue along Third Street and then east on West Western Avenue to better show off the redeveloping downtown, Flanders said. Family and children’s activities were presented through a partnership with the Muskegon Family YMCA.
Year two will be more of the same, Flanders and Larsen said. The integration of the festival with the new downtown Muskegon Farmers Market at West Western Avenue and Terrace Street will be a key element of the 2014 event, they said.
The new market facility offers opportunities on Friday, July 4 to integrate “food as art” and on Saturday, July 5 to link the traditional Saturday morning farm market to the daylong art fair, Larsen said.
“The initial conversations have begun with market staff,” Larsen said. “We are trying to look at ‘food as art’ and seeing how we can bring them together.”
The 2014 Lakeshore Art Festival also has a new website and expects to increase the number of overall vendors from about 300 to more than 400. Larsen said that the use of a new national art vendor registration website and the reputation of the event from 2013 already has nearly 60 vendors registered compared to less than 10 at this time last winter.
