It was a Dark and Stormy Day at the Ethnic Arts Festival

Thanks to Sara Pooley for these gorgeous shots.

xo Laura

Lakeshore Photo Journey - Part One

Below is the beautiful location of our Lakeshore Arts Festival. The lagoon gave us a gorgeous backdrop for the show and even a few picturesque little ducks (who were a bit camera shy.)

This Evanstonian is "Pretty in Pink."

LeRoy Bach performs Saturday afternoon with a friend.

The Mike Allemana Quartet on Sunday.



Chicago musicians Al Erich and Liz Johnson perform at Lakeshore as a classical duo.

Brooks Binau opens Lakeshore on Sunday.

Jamal Moss plays ambient electronic music and Incendio was a crowd favorite on Sunday.

L.A.U.R.E.N. A.N.D. L.A.U.R.A.

Part Two of Many: Ethnic Arts Festival Photos

Ted Struve is the longtime Parade of Nations coordinator who oversees the opening flag ceremony each year. The flags of over 200 nations are in the background.

A few shoppers braved the muddy park in the early afternoon.

Some happy artists huddled in their booth.

This poor fellow was either trying to catch butterflies or fish to no avail due to a complete absence of both at Dawes Park.

Girls at the Family Arts Activity Area enjoying what turned out to be a lovely afternoon!

Shoppers are reflected in a metal mirror.

Naomi took some down time to get henna on her hand.

Part One of Many: Ethnic Arts Festival Photos

During the morning of the first day of the Ethnic Arts Festival (July 19), we experienced torrential rains. It was soggy and cold and the artists, food vendors, and sponosors were unable to set up. We huddled under the hospitality tent praying for it to go away as quickly as possible. Although it let up by about 1, it was hard to imagine a festival happening at all that day!

Our photographer, Sara Pooley, caught this great shot of the beach Saturday morning.

Artists got a late start setting up on Saturday and enlisted their offspring to get everything up and running as soon as possible.

Everyone put on a brave face.

"Faces of Evanston" at Noyes

This evening a reception will be held for this year’s winning photos of the “Faces of Evanston” contest sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Evanston in collaboration with Evanston Now. At the Noyes Cultural Arts Center (927 Noyes St. Evanston, IL), the reception will run between the hours of 5:30pm-7:30pm and include wine and light refreshments. In addition, the event will feature a quartet by the Evanston Symphony as well as a silent auction.

Four years running, the “Faces of Evanston” photo contest has gathered much attention. Quoted in Evanston Now, Dr. Stamata Blanas who originated the contest says that he was “delighted with the number of entries this year. The enthusiasm of the photographers and the backdrop of Evanston’s beauty and excitement is evident in the entries.”

The prize winners are as follows:

1st Prize - $250 - Steve Dinelli and Andy Pakter
2nd Prize - $100 – Ryan Gac
3rd Prize - $50 - Hallie Redman
Special Judges Award - $50 – Kelly Sill
Honorable Mentions – Christopher Cameron, Jennifer Frankfurter, Jim Kozar, Joe Simchak, Lars Mothander, Micky Propadovich, Misti Henderson, Paul Whittaker, Ryan Gac and Suanne Rayner
Voice of the People Award - Lori Barrett

The Kiwanis Foundation awards over $33,000 annually to deserving Evanston organizations, focusing on the needs of children. The proceeds of this year’s brand new auction go to the foundation. Some of the donated items up for auction include restaurant certificates, 4 box seat tickets to a White Sox game as well as an autographed baseball from American League home run leader Carlos Quentin, a Kerry Wood autographed Cubs baseball, a wine tasting and instruction, a stay at the Hilton Garden Inn, tickets to the Evanston Symphony and Northwestern football.

The photographs will be on display for two weeks and will then move to First Bank & Trust, the McGaw YMCA and the Evanston Public Library. Please stop by the Noyes Cultural Arts Center to support!

-L.A.U.R.E.N.

Shh! Secret? ---- The Best Deals Are at the Lakeshore Silent Auction

On Saturday and Sunday of the Lakeshore Arts Festival, the Silent Art Auction gave patrons a chance to bid like they were at Sotheby’s or Christie’s in New York. Festival-goers browsed through donated auction items from almost 85% of the artists participating in the festival. Because of great interest, most of the bidding did not end until 6:00pm on Saturday and 4:00 on Sunday, with an exciting countdown from our own Noyes Cultural Arts Director - Jeff Cory. Items sold for a range of prices from as high as $175 to as low as $8. One festival patron said, “The auction is my favorite part of this festival. I can browse through the items, bid on what I like, and then find those artists’ booths. Plus, I love winning!”

The Lakeshore Silent Art Auction is definitely the best place to find great deals from the festival artists. Some items valued at nearly $150 sold for only $40! I even purchased a fun, 80s inspired pair of earrings for only 10 bucks. Artists participating in the festival came out to bid on other artists’ items too, and stopped for a bit to check out the competition and the status of their own items.

This year, the Silent Auction was put in charge of one person (me!), which made set-up, check-in, and auction procedure go very smoothly. With the installment of new color coded bid sheets, bidding became easier, simpler, and just plain fun. This great interest in the auction led it to be a wonderful success, and with the help of our wonderful volunteers and festival patrons, we made nearly twice the amount than we did last year! Thanks for the support and make sure to come out and bid next year!

Nuff said,

Lauren

Life Imitates Art: Buster Keaton Silent Film Night

Unfortunately we don't have any photos from the Buster Keaton Silent Film Night (August 26, 2008)! It is because we spent the whole show trying to keep our screen from collapsing.

The idea of screening a film at Starlight came from the exquisite young mind of Noyes intern Kristina Marrero. She got the idea when we were reviewing press kit submissions for Starlight back in February. One of the bands played music that sounded like something out of old Warner Bros cartoons. After a lot of research and dead ends, we found David Drazin, an Evanstonian and silent film buff who composes and performs original scores to Buster Keaton films. He gave us suggestions for films that would fit in our 1 1/2 hr time frame and he led us through the process of buying the rights to screen both films.

As this was the first time we have attempted to screen a film outdoors, I would say on the whole things went well. The highlight of the show was of course the fantastic Mr. Drazin. His scores to the films One Week and Sherlock Jr. captured the funny and suspenseful moments that are so singular to Buster Keaton films perfectly. He truly made the night a success.

Our screen was inflatable because that was all we could afford. We rented it from a company that also rents out "Moon Jumps." Yes, this should have been a red flag, but I was excited to have found an option that was both big enough and within our budget.

The screen was delivered, inflated, and staked at about noon. From noon to 5, the winds picked up immensely and also shifted from the East to the North. What we had initially set up to minimize wind resistance quickly turned into a massive white sail. The screen first collapsed at 5. The Facilities Management guys who were down at the park laughed really, really hard. We got the screen re-staked at 6 so that it was much tighter but by 7:30 the winds were such that we had to literally prop the screen up with our own weight.

As One Week, a film about a poorly constructed house that gets destroyed through a series of calamities was showing, we were behind the screen hoping the same thing didn't happen to us!

More severely unfortunate was when I walked around to the audience section and realized that the lamppost behind the screen was visible directly above it, shining like an evil cartoon character's nefarious idea--perhaps revenge for moving away from Kristina's original thought. I fear this, more than the wind, gave a strange and distracting effect to both films.

In the future, I think we will move the screen to the other side of the lagoon where it will catch the wind less and where the lampposts are more sparse. We certainly hope to work with David again next year!

xo Laura

Ethnic Arts Festival This Weekend!

Hello to all of our loyal readers! We have been extremely busy for the past two weeks preparing for this weekend’s Ethnic Arts Festival at Dawes Park in Evanston. We all hope you are as excited as we are for a weekend of ethnic art, music, dancing and food. Just to give you a look into what will be featured at this year’s festival, I’ve prepared a handy-dandy overview!

* 116 Artist Vendors with 125 Booth Spaces
* Over 20 Entertainers on Two Stages
* Over 10 Family Arts Activities and Workshops
* 15 Food Vendors
* Silent Auction featuring items from Participating Artists
* Much More!

I hope you can make your way over to Dawes Park July 19th and 20th anytime between 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. because this is one arts festival that you surely don’t want to miss out on! From Thai jewelry to Columbian and Mexican Folklore dance to Bosnian Cevapcici, the 23rd Annual Ethnic Arts Festival will provide you with a one-of-a-kind experience.

Just to give a shout out to all of our sponsors: ABC 7 Chicago, Chicago Public Radio, The Chicago Reader, Evanston Roundtable, Quince Restaurant and The Homestead Hotel, Charles Schwab, Whole Foods Market and The Cherry Family Foundation. This festival is presented by the City of Evanston’s Cultural Arts Division. The program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

This is Kristina signing out...