‘Good vibe’ at Shadow Art Fair

By Dan DuChene
Jul. 20, 2009    ·    4:25 a.m.

Another Shadow Art Fair has come and gone, and many involved said the event has evolved into a community.

The event has run twice a year since 2006, with one installment in July and one before Christmas. Every fair has been held at the Corner Brewery, which opened for business the same summer the Shadow Art Fair kicked off.

“It’s gotten really refined,” said John Roos, an Ann Arbor resident who has been selling his coffee, Roos Roast, at the event since its first inception.

Roos, who makes all of his income through selling his coffee, said he has made lasting professional relationships through his involvement with the Shadow Art Fair. He is one of few artists who have been at the event with the same craft since 2006.

“Super strong networking,” Roos said. “It’s amazing.”

One of 46 vendors showcasing their work at the event, Roos said the number of applications submitted by artists has risen every year, and selection for the event can give an artist “clout.”

This was Michelle Baker’s first year as an artist at the Shadow Art Fair. She does printing in a studio in her Ann Arbor home. Her business is called Elevated Press.

“I feel privileged,” Baker said of her selection. “I think it speaks fairly well to be in that upper tier.”

This was the first art fair Baker and her husband Peter have been in. She said the couple have been doing their work for about a year now, and were pleased with how everything was going Saturday. She said she has been to the event as a participant, and her involvement as an artist turned out how she expected.

“A lot of people crowded around,” Baker said of her expectations. “A lot of activity. Fun.”

“It’s the best thing that ever happened to the Corner Brewery,” said Rene Greff, who owns the brewery that makes the Arbor Brewing Company’s beer at the corner of Forrest and Norris streets.

“It’s helped create a community,” she said.

Greff was serving beer in the brewery’s beer garden from a make-shift bar. They were mainly pouring the beer-crafters’ special Shadow Art Fair brew.

Unveiled at 6 p.m., the sales of the special Shadow Art Fair brew helped to fund a grant put out by the event’s organizers, the Michigan Design Militia. The recipient of this year’s grant was Ypsilanti’s Dreamland Theatre, who will be touring a marionette show of local history to area schools.

Greff said there were 10 gallons of the brew made, and supplies went fast.

Ypsilanti resident Casey Dawson and Brooklyn, N.Y. resident—but Ann Arbor native—Megan Broat were standing near the outdoor bar in the beer garden Saturday. Though Dawson has been going to the Shadow Art Fair since it started, this was Broat’s first.

“It’s a good way to come back,” Broat said. “I knew I’d see familiar faces.”

Dawson said she comes out every year because she usually knows someone playing music that day. However, she said she usually gets one piece of art every year that she likes. She said she likes that the artists are “new and current.”
She said other art fairs usually sell “crap on a stick.”

Mark Maynard, a member of the Michigan Design Militia, said the group tries to rotate in new artists every year. He said this year they had 40 percent returning vendors.

Roos, a rare repeat every year since 2006, said he does good business at the event, and even left the Ann Arbor Art Fair, which runs the same weekend, to set up shop at the Corner Brewery for the day. He said he likes the fair in Ann Arbor, but the Shadow Art Fair “is the soul.”

He said the there is less corporate influence at the Shadow Art Fair, and more of “an independent vibe.” He said people actually come to the Shadow Art Fair for the art—and the beer.

“People really appreciate it here,” Roos said.

He described the event as “12 hours, 6 feet of space and wall-to-wall people.”