One thing was made clear to local artist Marin Peterson from her time in craft fairs: “a lot of people couldn’t contribute for a lot of reason.”
Many artists and artisans who otherwise were interested in participating in markets and fairs don’t for any number of reasons.
From steep entry fees for booths, to lack of transportation to disability, the barrier to entry for local artists and artisans to showing their art, is all too often prohibitive.
But what if it didn’t have to be?
What if artists were able to show their goods for free from their own home, with residents and customers coming to them in a city-wide art fair?
That was the central idea for Park Your Art, according to Peterson.
“Out of the blue, it just showed up.”
Park your Art is an upcoming city-wide art fair where residents will bring out art, crafts, and artisan goods to their driveways to be sold.
On Saturday, Sept. 27, dozens of houses around the city of Hastings will transform into makeshift artist stands showcasing goods from barn quilts to oil paintings to hand-made desserts.
Residents will ‘park their art’ on their lawns and in their driveways across the city in a scattered, city-wide art fair.
Participating homes will be marked by red balloons with a comprehensive map of homes available online and on the group’s Facebook event.
“I like the idea that it was all-inclusive,” said Peterson.
The grassroots event has been bolstered by a number of hands, from work online to spread the word and continually add new vendors to the online map, to help from the Hastings Fleet Farm, which will host artists in their parking lot on the day of the event.
“Everyone had to contribute their own piece,” said Peterson.
In addition to the accessibility of the event, Park Your Art was explicitly decentralized across the city.
Rather than have a craft fair in a specific park or bringing vendors to Second Street, the idea of the decentralized event was to involve the whole town in order to “benefit all businesses and residents,” said Peterson.
Peterson already characterizes the inaugural Park Your Art event as a pilot. Not only is she already planning for next year, but has ambitions of the event spreading to other communities as well.
“It’s not a me project. It’s not a you project. It is an us extravaganza,” said Peterson.
While a number of artists will be setting up stands in the Fleet Farm parking lot, homes across town will open up their driveways to showcase their art. At time of writing participating addresses include:
620 4th St W
502 5th St W
2208 Pine St
1963 Fallbrooke Dr
1930 Walnut St
407 11th St W
815 W 7th
702 15th St W
7 Radford Ct
1510 Highland Dr
3660 Maher Ave
208 4th St E
950 19th St W
11th and Maple
5th and Eddy
6th and Ashland
Lester and 33rd
River and 2nd St W
Fleet Farm Parking Lot
11th and Pine
2nd and Sibley
To view the event’s online map of vendors and a complete list of vendors, visit Park Your Art’s Facebook Page at Park Your Art Hastings MN.
