The West Side Arts Festival, hosted by the Champaign Park District and 40 North, took place on Sunday at West Side Park in Champaign.
The festival had 25 local artists present to sell their artwork to members of the community. The artwork at the festival included paintings, drawings, ceramics and photography.
One local artist in attendance, Clara de la Fuente, has been presenting her artwork at the festival for three years. She first moved to Champaign from Spain for a chemical engineering internship 12 years ago.
de la Fuente recalled how her love for making acrylic and watercolor paintings was a fun hobby at first, before creating her business.
“I started painting just for fun in the winter of 2017, and, years later, I started doing shows, and people started showing interest,” de la Fuente said. “That’s how my business was created. It was very random, and I initially did this for a little bit, but then I made more art pieces.”
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After being an artist for over eight years and presenting her work at several shows across the state, de la Fuente said that her favorite part of working festivals is talking to customers.
“I’m an extrovert and I love to talk to people, especially the customers,” de la Fuente said. “Some of the people I’ve met before, and they keep coming back to check out the artwork and other artists here.”
de la Fuente wasn’t the only artist showing off their work at the festival. Carly Morrison, another local artist, has been making and selling ceramics in the area for over 15 years. Because of the amount of time she’s been selling her artwork, Morrison says that she got some repeat customers at the festival.
“I had three people in the booth this morning already that have purchased things at this festival or other shows today,” Morrison said. “It’s a nice way to interact with the community, and people will buy something and really enjoy it, so they’ll come back to buy things for other people.”
When it came to planning the event, Morgan Pittman, events and community engagement coordinator with the Champaign Park District, said that it started over the summer.
“The Champaign Park District has been working with 40 North for a long time,” Pittman said. “We do this event together, and the planning started back in June with getting ahold of vendors, artists, and seeing if they were interested.”
This was Pittman’s first time setting up the festival, as she moved to the area in June. When asked about how difficult it was to coordinate the festival, Pittman stated that it wasn’t hard due to 40 North’s involvement.
“It was pretty easy since 40 North takes a lot of the grunt work,” Pittman said. “They reached out to the artists, so that definitely took a lot of weight off my shoulders. My biggest role is making sure there’s a first aid kit, water and some entertainment that kids can enjoy while their parents shop.”
Pittman stated that there was a decrease in attendance due to the heat and school recently starting again. The temperature hit a high of over 90 degrees on Sunday at the time of the festival.
The West Side Arts Festival isn’t the only event of its kind this year. Flannel Fest – a fall-themed festival – will be held on Oct. 25. More information about the festival can be found on the Champaign Park District website.
