In 1977, Aurora Art League, Fox Valley Park District, and Downtown Business Council, held the 11th annual Downtown Aurora Art Fair at Water Street Mall. It was a weekend affair in May according to the dates on the yellow poster, hand- drawn by Robert Clark.
Bubble lettering reminiscent of the groovy 1970s announces the Art Fair over a more modest line drawing of a stretched overhead awning and large, leafy trees shading artist booths and the outlines of attendees. The poster’s black-ink-lettering shows a rain date for the folllowing weekend.
The poster by Clark, a freelance artist from Aurora who worked in advertising and illustration with Lyon Metal one client, was on display at a pre-pandemic show held by Aurora Historical Society on the first floor of the David L. Pierce Art and History Center, 20 E. Downer Place.
This year, Alley Art Festival celebrates its 11th year with all but last year’s event held at Water Street Mall. The colorful poster is by Giovanni Arellano. Arellano is a mixed media artist that specializes in original art through his design company Fiendsco. He sells T-shirts, hoodies, prints, portraits, and creates murals.
Jenn Byrne Evans designed the first Alley Art Festival poster in 2010. It featured a leaping bunny inspired by Lapin Agile Cabaret in Paris where writers, poets, artists, sculptors, painters, comedians, musicians, and singers, came together in the late 1800s.
Evans, now the director of Aurora Public Art, was part of the founding group that created the grassroots art festival. In December 2009, I wrote an Email to four local artists, including Evans:
“Ultimately, it would be extremely simple (grassroots) with no committees, no meetings, no judges, no money…just a day that local artists (professional, amateur and students) are invited to set up at Water Street Mall and share their work, whether it is performance art, drawings, video, music or whatever.”
Alley Art Festival has become a bit more structured over the years, but it still remains very much a local, grassroots, event that showcases local artists. Something that Evans and I continue as partners 11 years later.
When I saw my great uncle Bob’s poster on display, I didn’t realize that we were carrying on an Aurora tradition, and that artists had congregated along the same area more than 40 years ago.
August 28, approximately 100 artists will be downtown Aurora for this year’s Alley Art Festival at three downtown locations; BOM’ DA LOT, Aurora’s first sanctioned Street Art Gallery, on Middle Avenue; live painting at several mural installation sites with Aurora Public Art as host.
For more information on Alley Art Festival and a full listing of events August 28, visit auroradowntown.org.
Marissa Amoni is the manager of Aurora Downtown, a group of business and property owners in Special Service Area One. Amoni founded Alley Art Festival in 2010 with Jenn Byrne Evans, Lisa Gloria, and Nate Miller along with several supportive artists and friends. Visit this Saturday, Aug. 28 from noon to 5 p.m..