by Dean J. Seal | July 29, 2004 | mnartists.org
Dean Seal introduces three very different street art fairs, all of them happening at the same time. Now that summer may finally be here, it's time to get out and enjoy it.
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For sheer pleasure in a setting, however, Loring Park is hard to beat. The renovation a few years back, done by citizens who were tired of tax-cutting budgets and who wanted to save their featured amenity, turned out a stellar place to get a stroll, a bite and a canvas. The booths are laced around the pond, with iron bridges, a big dock, a nice playground, and plenty of goofing-off space. If the metaphorical breakfast at Uptown is steak and eggs with black coffee, and at Powderhorn it’s granola and banana yogurt with green tea, here at Loring it’s a steaming espresso and a pair of croissants, with Danish butter and Montana Blackberry jam. That’s metaphorical language, mind you; no one is actually selling the things. But you get the drift.
As the home of the Gay Pride weekend, Loring is also the comfortable home of many in the GLBT community, and they are active patrons of the arts. The art tends to be midway between Commercial-ish Uptown and Crunchy Powderhorn. If I needed to generalize, I would posit a slight inclination towards elegance. 130 artists juried in by the organizers make this the one most easily managed, most serene in comportment, most benign in crowd activity.
There are family events, audience participation, jugglers from Circus Juventas (kids learning circus skills from St. Paul), tango dancing and lessons, Shakespeare in the park (This year it’s the controversial Measure for Measure), artists, demonstrations about the craft, and various singers, accordions and an alp-horn (not sponsored by Ricola). This is also the opening weekend of the Fringe Festival, and some of the mainstay Fringe venues are here. The Women’s Club, the Loring Playhouse, and the theater at Minneapolis Community and Technical College are all on the perimeter of the park, so the idea of seeing a few plays and dawdling by the art is a very nice combo of opportunities.