Michael Workman

Maybe it's the atrocious winters. Maybe it's just all that sun and exposed flesh. Either way, at this time every year, thousands are overtaken with the urge to view art and crafts while sampling the city's most savory fine dining options. Whether it's a lamb and vegetable shish kebob, a plate of teriyaki chicken, or heaping scoops of ice cream, there's no better summer destination than Chicago. Craft-seekers will find even the most eccentric tastes satisfied in the jewelry, hobby arts and miles of tchotchkes stacked under the hooded tents and umbrella booths of vendors from across the region. To help you on your way through the vast labyrinth of worthy street events, we're offering a few pointers to some of the more popular on the map.


57th Street Art Fair
A not-for-profit started in 1948 by gallerist Mary Louise Womer, this marks the 57th year for the oldest juried art fair in the Midwest. Drawing over 100,000 attendees, this event attracts over 300 artists with an emphasis on ceramics and photography. The 57th Street Art Fair runs concurrent with the Hyde Park Community Art Fair, which showcases fine-art crafts. 57th at Kimbark, (773)493-3247. June 5-6.

Beverly Art Festival
A neighborhood arts center founded in 1967 that offers over 75 classes in the arts, the Beverly's well-known for its proscenium theater where dramatic, dance and live music performances are staged regularly. It has hosted this low-key community art festival for 25 years, on hiatus for the last three years while the art center moved to its new location on 111th Street. Doors open for the first Art Festival since the move on Summer Solstice weekend, with a Saturday night performance by "chamber blues" musician Corky Siegel. 2407 W. 111th at the Beverly Art Center, (773)445-3838. June 19, 10am-8pm.

Bucktown Arts Fest
A truly bohemian event in its eighteenth year, this street fair prides itself on the fly-by-night, strictly offbeat aura of its participants. But there are crafts aplenty to distract from the predictable sideshows. Buy clocks made out of automotive parts, or color-swirled ashtrays by Red Glow 1500 (the name indicates the temperature at which glass melts). There's also a schedule of poetry readings, art slung on fences and performances. While snacking or taking time out from hoofing booth to booth, the drug-crazed lunatics that hang at the fringes are good for a few chuckles. 2300 N. Oakley at Senior Citizen's Park, (312)409-8305. August 28-29.

Gold Coast Art Fair
Here you're most likely to find that prized lawn sculpture of an eagle carved out of a tree trunk. Now in its 47th manifestation, this third oldest of Chicago's street fairs closes in again on the River North gallery district with an extravagant attendance of 750,000 visitors. Fans of photography, jewelry and engravings will find something worth shelling out a few bucks here. Erie at LaSalle, (847)444-9600. August 6-8.

Lakeview Arts and Music Festival/Rock Around the Block
A widely reported controversy has swirled around the fate of these and two other festivals. Despite the controversy, it's worth attending to settle the question as to whether the reconfigured festivals themselves or the art they present will be any good. Lincoln at Ashland and Belmont, (773)868-3010. June 26-27.


Old Town Art Fair
Existing as a not-for-profit since 1948, this is just a nicer, cleaner place to spend an afternoon than most. It's also an affordable option for artists who want to haul out their wares. Rather than pay a fee for their booth, artists donate work that then gets auctioned off to support Old Town Triangle Association organizers. Forty percent of the overall proceeds benefit the Menomonee Club, a North Side boy's and girl's club. Photography, painting, sculpture and jewelry are all favorites at this fair. 1763 N. North Park at the Old Town Triangle Association, (312)337-1938. June 12-13.

Millennium Park opens
Outdoor activities this summer just wouldn't be complete without a visit to the city's newest whimsical world-shaking project, Millennium Park. It's a must-see, with all its Romanesque colonnades, plaza-on-the-mall landscaping and, of course, Chicago finally getting its own Frank Gehry-designed structure. Yay! We're finally as hip as Seattle! But what about all that sniping that it feels a teensy bit like an amusement park? Well, after driving through downtown's glut of Rainforest Café-like theme restaurants, the occasional thronging horde of Falun Gong demonstrators and Michigan Avenue's temple-like monuments to shopping, the park might just seem tame in comparison.
All heckling aside, the city does score kudos: the bandshell's a magnificent accomplishment, and the Anish Kapoor "bean" sculpture represents our first public exposure to postmillennial revisions in art to our (mostly) shared modernist goals. It's covered by a large white-tarpaulined building at the moment; watch it come together at www.usequities.com/MPark.htm . Mostly, though, it's just a relief to finally view the skyline from the perspective of the park's lush green hills instead of just seeing the sky through the bars of Gehry's languid, uncoiling dragon. Try to ignore the vapid comparisons to Central Park--we're not quite ready for statues of poets and writers yet--and stop by the weekend of July 16-18 for the grand opening of Millennium Park.
(2004-05-25)

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