The Sandspur

Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: News

During the weekend of March 16-18 the city of Winter Park held its 48th annual Sidewalk Art Festival. More than 350,000 people came to visit this year's show. This year around 1,100 artists from all over the world applied to be in this Art Festival held here in our city of Winter Park.

A panel and judges narrowed down the selection to 225 artists for this venue.

Park Ave was shut down to traffic so that the artists and vendors could set up their booths. The park itself was also filled with clusters of booths. It was a nice setup for people to walk around and see all the art. Pieces ranged from clay, paintings, jewelry,
digital art, sculpture, etc. Any type of art that one could possibly imagine was displayed
at this art festival. Artists were at their booths so that people could go up to them and ask questions or to discuss the artwork. Many even had pieces for sale. Even if art is not one of your favorite things it was still interesting to see the variety and talent that was displayed.

There was even food and drinks to enjoy in case you got hungry or thirsty during the
show.

Typical foods such as corndogs, funnel cakes, chicken delights, and crepes were there along with iced tea and fresh squeezed lemonade. Local radio stations also showed up. Mix 105.1 was there to show their spirit and even had a stand with a wheel that spun for people to get free prizes. There were even music entertainers there to ensure that everyone who came to the art festival had a great time.

Artists competed for sixty-two awards totalling $67,500. The "Best of Show" prize is a good chunk of change at $10,000. The Winter
Park Sidewalk Committee purchases the piece and donates it to the city. So how does the rest of the $57,500 get spread out? There are
10 Awards of Excellence at $2,000, 20 awards of Distinction at $1,000, and 30 Awards of Merit at $500. The remaining $2,500 foes to the Award for Distinguished Work of Art and is presented through The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of America Art.

So which artist got the coveted "Best of Show" award? It was Randy Eckard's piece Opening Light. He is known for his watercolors and fi ne prints. He came down from Blue Hill, Maine. To see more of his work you can go to www.randyeckardpaintings.
com. Ray Harl from Salem, Wisconsin got the More Museum of Art award for his piece White
Shoulder.

The Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival was a great event for anyone to go to. It covered such a wide variety that it was impossible
to not find something there that you liked. Families from all over came down to see this show. The weather was great, the art was amazing, and the event was an overall success.

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