Revitalized Gordonston Art Fair is by put on by locals, for local artists and community
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Fall is upon us, and so too is Savannah’s season of outdoor festivals.
Amongst the ever-growing collection of events is the Gordonston Art Fair, happening at Juliette Low Park, Kentucky Avenue at Edgewood Road in Gordonston, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 14. With the tagline ‘Locals for Locals,’ the Eastside community is looking to distinguish itself from its fellows by highlighting neighborhood artists who may have gone unnoticed in a city full of creatives.
“It wasn’t that we didn’t want people with galleries, but we wanted to reach out to people who are underrepresented,” explained Gordonston Art Fair Committee member Gale Steves of the artists set to be featured, “And there are a lot of very talented people that do not have a gallery or something to support them.”
“It’s an opportunity to reach out to many artists,” she went on to explain. “And they’re not all SCAD students.”
Community Perspective: Dr. Walter and Linda Evans make groundbreaking gift of African American art to Telfair Museums
Revitalized neighborhood art fair features hyperlocal artists
This is the second consecutive year of the revitalized art fair, which had been an annual event back in the aughts. Steves encouraged her fellow committee members to bring it back, in part, due to her desire to help strengthen her personal connection with her new neighbors: She moved out of downtown three years ago due to the proliferation of short term vacation rentals (STVRs), a trend which erased any semblance of a real community in her former stomping grounds.
“I didn’t want to do ‘just another fair,’ I wanted to do [one] where we could involve the neighborhood, where the neighborhood becomes one with us,” she said. “It’s not the usual thing.”
To that end, Steves and the rest of the committee worked to bring together groups that don’t always collaborate. That included a stop over at the local Christ’s Community Church with a plant and a smile, a small gesture that led to the church graciously offering their parking lot for the artists to use to load and unload their wares on the day of the event.
“The whole idea is really to bring the community together,” she noted. “We’ve got a huge black church, and there’s no communication. It’s them and us. And I said it’s not gonna be them and us, because I’m inviting them.”
Additionally, the committee has created unique partnerships with Savannah Tree Foundation, Chatham County Resource Conservation and Recycling Education Center, and Ogeechee Riverkeeper, offering them free space in exchange for them committing to bring in artists representative of each of their organizations objectives.
They’re also including their most junior citizens in the fun.
“We’ve got arts and crafts for kids and our youngest artists,” Steves said, noting that they’re bringing former Elementary School teacher Mary Thomas Tiller in to lead the activities.
And they’ll be showing the creations of 10 Shuman Elementary School third graders. “And we’re gonna hang it from the ‘Rope of Honor’ between the trees,” she continued. “It’s powerful.”
On the other end of the spectrum, the Gordonston Art Fair will include a selection of works by Pete Christman. The talented artist and longtime SCAD professor passed away in 2018, and his family will be offering up several of his paintings for attendees to both view and purchase.
Historic Juliette Low Park open to more than Gordonston during art fair
Juliette Low Park, a private six-acre parcel deeded to the Gordonston neighborhood by Low herself, is surrounded by an iron fence, it’s gates designed by Low herself. Usually closed to the public, the art fair offers a unique opportunity for Savannahians to peruse the grounds. Notably, within it’s walls stands an historic cottage, a building originally donated to the park by the old Union Bag and Paper Company. Proceeds from the event will go towards the continued preservation and restoration of the structure.
Like many of the other local fall festivals, Gordonston Art Fair will include the kinds of amenities that have become a staple of these types of events, like food trucks and live music. But what makes the happening unique is that it places an emphasis on the things that make Gordonston special. And in Steves’ mind, every neighborhood in Savannah has features that are worth showcasing, and it’s the hope of she and her fellow committee members that this fair will inspire other communities to do something similar.
“You could do this in your neighborhood,” she opined. “It’s not impossible. I feel that we need to reach out and make the residential part of our community more cohesive, and art is the glue.”
“What is an art fair?” Steves asked rhetorically. “No one has really defined it. It could be junk. It could be a carnival. Or it could have a purpose, and that’s what we’re trying to bring.”
For more information about Gordonston Art Fair, or to inquire about how to bring such an event to your neighborhood, Steves and her fellow committee members can be reached at gordonstonartfair@gmail.com. The fair is free to attend.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Revitalized Gordonston Art Fair is by locals, for local artists, community
