Went to Schlafly Art Outside this weekend (their fancy name for "Art Fair on Our Parking Lot"), and it was...good. Not mindblowing, but solid. Sort of like Schlafly beer, I guess (but not like Bottleworks food, oh my god I could write 22634634 billion posts about how delicious that stuff is). I digress! Sorry!
There are a limited number of booths (53, by my count on the website), and lots offered the same things. Ceramics, photography, living room paintings, etc. Most were also prohibitively expensive (at least for my wallet). Some awesome jewelry was found, and some prints I wished I could afford, but I wasn't blown away by the options. I think I've become more a fan of "craft" shows than "art" shows. I want art that I can use, not that I can look at.
(Here's my plug for the jewelry - I bought two necklaces and some earrings from Zanne Avenue that I love love love. Maps/comics/book images + awesome settings are, well, awesome! And it wasn't ungodly expensive, just sort of pricey.)
The non-art part of Art Outside was pretty satisfying. I still can't get used to $4.25 beers, but then again, I'm cheap. And the more you drink, the more reasonable the price seems. They were tasty, and even though every time I went up the sign said they were out of Summer Lager, they always had it. The Mac and Cheese was likewise delicious, but I was a little too full of beer to sample anything else. The pretzel sticks looked great, even though i did think they were chocolate covered bananas for the first two hours we were there.
The music was hopping and good - I loved Maid Rite (the first band), and I will definitely make an effort to see them more around the St. Louis area. The middle band I dimly recall (sorry! looking at art! and sort of drunk!), and Bob Reuter's Alley Ghost played last, which was satisfying. It's nice to hear a band and know lots of songs. Luckily, they ended their set 1/2 hour early and I got to go on to bed.
It was definitely a satisfying evening, and since the looking and listening is free, I'm certain I'll be back next year.
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Gretchen
ReplyDeleteCheers to you for getting out and experiencing the Art Outside event; however I beg you to reconsider your harsh criticism of Schlafly's efforts.
As someone who has planned a large, free-to-the-public festival before, I don't think you realize how much work goes into Art Outside or any other Schlafly event (i.e., Hop in the City, the LOT festival, weekly farmer's market, etc.). Wrangling vendors (btw, 50+ vendors is a lot to handle!) and volunteers, renting tents, making arragements to sell beer outside and overall marketing takes a ton of work, and Schlafly always manages to pull it off!
St. Louisans are first to complain that there's "nothing to do here" or the things we have to do are lame, yet we are lucky to have a local brewer who takes the time and energy to hold regular free events in our community.
Compared to the Clayton Art Fair, which was the same weekend as Art Outside, the artwork was much more affordable and accessible to people who are interested in making a small investment into their collection. Having low-quality (i.e., really really cheap) pieces there would take away from the intergrity of the event itself.
As someone who isn't originally from St. Louis, my high esteem for Schlafly isn't terribly biased. I think they do a great job, both with their events and their beer, which I am happy to pay $4.25 for knowing that it goes to a local, community-minded company.
For everyone (and Abigail), I just wanted to clarify: I'm not sure "It was definitely a satisfying evening, and since the looking and listening is free, I'm certain I'll be back next year," constitutes" harsh criticism, and I did enjoy myself.
ReplyDeleteI do understand the effort it takes to put on an event like that, trust me. I just personally prefer craft fairs to art fairs, because I cannot afford $500 paintings or $35 ceramic mugs. Kudos to those who can, but I'm certainly not one of them.
Thanks for posting, though. Tell your friends! If I get a book deal, then maybe I can afford some art :).