The Ann Arbor Art Fair isn’t just about walking around and browsing the widest and most high quality art you could possibly imagine, among the 400,000 or so guests that organizers are expecting. There’s music too.
One of the artists that will be performing is Ann Arbor’s Rochelle Clark. She will be playing her Americana at the Fountain Stage.
“I love that the Art Fair exists just to being beauty to the community. It’s a sensory overload in the best way possible. If you go to the art fair your every sense is going to be engaged with – beautiful visual art, listening to music, we’re going to have incredible food. It’s a really lovely way to bring people together who are interested in community and investing time into the art that makes our community really beautiful,” Rochelle Clark, an Ypsilanti-based artist who also helps organize the art fair, said.
Of her music, she said she plans to play songs like “’In Between.’ If you like artists like Maggie Rogers, that will be a song that you might enjoy. There’s a song called ‘In Time’ – and it’s the title of the EP I released a few years ago – about how the path that you think you’re going to take might not be the one that’s right for you. …. If you enjoy artists like Joy Williams then you might really enjoy that song.”
The Fountain Stage is going to be set up where Top of the Park always is. This stage is sponsored by 107.1; and will be taken over every evening by acts from Johnny’s Speakeasy. This year’s lineup, according to an art fair press release, will be:
Thursday, July 17
11am – Mark Jewett
12pm – Andrés Soto
1pm – Annie Bacon
2pm – Lily Bowen
3pm – Timothy Monger
4pm– Joe Groves Instrumental Resonance
5pm – Root Cause Analysis
Johnny’s Speakeasy Stage Takeover Artists
6pm – Rochelle Clark
7pm – The Sidemen
8pm – Delta88
Friday, July 18
11am – Noelle Prouty
12pm – Detroit Opera
1pm – Emily Slomovits
2pm – Anne Erlewine
3pm. – Jo Serrapere
4pm – Shannon Linsea
5pm – Lynne Frederickson Jazz Trio
Johnny’s Speakeasy Stage Takeover Artists
6pm – Badass Women Quartet
7pm – Hoodang
8pm – Misty Lyn & The Big Beautiful
Saturday, July 19
11am – Laura Frawley
12pm – Michael Smith
1pm – Eric Moore
2pm – Scotty Leeman
3pm – Laura Blackford
4pm – Ashley Pyle
Johnny’s Speakeasy Stage Takeover Artists
5pm. – Maddy Ringo
6pm – Billy King & Friends
Main Street will get its own stage too, supported by 89.1 WEMU. According to the same press release, the acts there will be:
Thursday, July 17
11am-2pm – Neutral Zone
3-5pm – Street Fiction 2.0
6pm – DuPont Phillips
7:30pm – Nathan Graham
7:30pm – Joe &The Ruckus
Friday, July 18
11am-5pm – Amplify Stage Takeover
6pm – Rabbitology
Saturday, July 19
1-2pm. – Out Loud Chorus
3-5pm – Saline Fiddlers
6pm – Brain Plasticity Ukulele Collective and Blueshouse
Additional Entertainment Schedule
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Ingalls Mall is going to be full of artists demonstrating their work. You can watch ceramics being made by the Ann Arbor Potters Guild and glassblowing from the Toledo Museum of Art.
Interactive art will also be on display by MicroMoments of Magic. They’ll be transforming Graffiti Alley – a consonantly evolving art space between the Michigan Theater and Tomukun.
“The Ann Arbor Art Fair has always been about more than just viewing art – it’s about experiencing it,” Karen Delhey, executive director of the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair, said in the press release. “This year, we’re inviting visitors to get even closer to the creative process, whether that’s watching a master at work or being a part of the creative process themselves.”
Andy Adams, an artist from Greenville, South Carolina, will be the State Fair’s featured artist this year. It will be his fifth art fair and the first time he’s made art for the fair, a poster for the State Fair.
“I went to school for art, and for my senior project I came up with the idea that ‘words are powerful’. … It grew out of that. I started jumbling letters, and making forms out of that,” Adams said. He makes the 10 hour drive because “the location’s great. The weather’s always nice… The patrons and people who run the show are super nice.”
He will be one of three featured artists spread throughout downtown. Brian Delozier and Chuck Wimmer will be the others.
New food options will be visiting downtown too.
According to organizers, over 30 “local award-winning and diverse restaurants and outside vendors will be offering incredible cuisine and refreshing beverages along the fair’s footprint. From seafood to bao buns to pizza parlors and Mexican cuisine, there’s going to be something for everyone.”
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
