By By JESSICA SIEFF / Niles Daily Star
NILES – This weekend art hits the beach for the 'Arts in Motion' event taking place in downtown Niles June 27 and 28.
Over 25 artists and artisans will be on hand throughout downtown Main St. showing off their unique talents and offering up their artwork for sale. An array of different masters of mediums are expected including artists specializing in glass blowing, pottery, painting, caricatures, watercolors and jewelry.
"We're really excited about this year," said Chickie Landgraf, chairman of the Main Street promotions committee. "All of those artists will be in town, demonstrating what they do."
The soothing sands of the beach will serve as a theme for this year's event. 20 tons of sand will make its way to Main St. and serve as the proverbial canvas for four visiting sand sculptors. Each sculpture will utilize five tons of sand. And if that's not enough to make visitors feel like they're at the beach itself – just behind Frame of Mind – on Sycamore St., a sand sculpture contest will take place.
"We've never done this before," said Landgraf. "So this year it's just sort of freestyle."
Those interested can pick up a $10 starter kit and enter the contest. Prizes are $25, $50 and $100 cash. "We've got kits out in a few places right now," said Landgraf. Those starter kits can be found downtown at the Main Street office, as well as stores like Frame of Mind, Manifesto and the Niles Art Gallery. "We like to get people involved," she added. "What's really cool is, the sculptors will do a couple of seminars for us," to help show those interested how sand sculpting is done.
In addition to sauntering about in the sand, visitors will be treated to live music, food as well as performance art during Arts in Motion.
Over at Frame of Mind, which will serve as the welcoming center for the event, Helen Moorman prepares for the in-house artists who will be using her gallery as their temporary studio as well as the public stopping by to watch – well – the art in motion.
"We'll have six artists in-house," Moorman said. "Painting and doing a demonstration." Last year, Moorman said there was a constant flow of visitors in and out of her store to meet and watch the artists and just take a look around. More than just an arts festival, Moorman said Arts in Motion is a great place to "meet new people" as well as take time to speak with the artists themselves.
"It's a free event," said Moorman. "And not just for the people, it's nice for the artists too." It helps artists to have the opportunity and availability to acquire a booth without having to pay any fees to do so, she added. It could just be the reason why the event has drawn in just over twice as many artists that took part in the event last year. Moorman said Tuesday afternoon that the last count of artists participating in Arts in Motion came to 29. It's quite a jump from the estimated total of 14 she said were in attendance last year.
Friday night will kick off the event with a "sand blast street dance" and barbecue dinner. Artists should start arriving around noon and the food and music will get started between 5 and 5:30 p.m. Baab's barbecue will be available Friday night – tickets are $10 (call 687-4332 for tickets). The Niles Academy of Performing Arts will give lessons in social dances like the cha cha, tango and the jitterbug, and there will be live music by Van Dyke Revue.
"I love to watch artists work and create," Landgraf said. "It's a real educational experience."