There’s something about a custom poster. They catch your attention taped to a window or door. They get us excited about what’s ahead. It’s eye-catching and anticipatory. It’s also not AI.
For 15 years, Alley Art Festival has commissioned local artists to create posters for the year’s event on the last Saturday of August in downtown Aurora. The artists are paid and given credit for their work. They’re also given little to go on, some text and perhaps a rough theme, so the ideas are from them; the finished creation is their work.
A group of four creative individuals from Aurora started Alley Art Festival in 2010. They included me, Jenn Byrne, Nate Miller, and Lisa Gloria. Byrne offered to create the poster for the first year, and used a French-bohemian inspired theme as a nod to the Lapin Agile, or agile rabbit, in Paris. The cabaret was popular among artists, writers, musicians, poets, and actors in the late 1800s.
The next year, Gloria was inspired by mythology and the half man half goat faun or satyr. As the festival grew, more artists were invited to create posters including Chris Hodge, Joanna Goss, Don Picton, Jaime Torraco, Laura Lynne, Solange Henson, Roz Anomaly, Marisol Delvalle, Giovanni Arellano, Catalina Diaz, Jacqueline Franco, and Lindsey Roussel.
All of the artist posters are unique with common elements such as nature, whimsy, and fun.
Hodge’s Victorian-inspired woman with lightbulbs is reminiscent of an Alphonso Mucha painting. Picton’s 2014 poster was inspired by an old Phillips Park Zoo poster on display at Aurora Historical Society’s second floor exhibit Aurora Story at The DLP Art and History Center. Diaz has circus entertainers and a pinball machine in her 2022 poster.
This year, Alley Art Festival is featuring the artists and the posters they created for the event at a Poster Show Friday, Aug. 1 at If These Walls Could Talk, 32 S. Stolp Avenue in downtown Aurora. The show will have all 15 posters from the past 14 years and this year on display along with new work from many of the artists.
Visit the show starting at 7 p.m. when you stop by Stolp Block Party at First Fridays. The show will run through September 28. Limited prints of the posters will be available for purchase.
Add these art events to your 2025 calendar:
•July 26 and 27, Geneva Arts Fair, Third Street in Geneva
•August 1, Poster Show, If These Walls Could Talk in downtown Aurora
•August 8, Second Fridays, Water Street Studios in Batavia
•August 30, Alley Art Festival, Aurora. alleyartaurora.com
Marissa Amoni is the owner of Marissa Bright, a public relations and event management company specializing in shining the light on nonprofits and small businesses. She runs Alley Art Festival, celebrating 15 years this year. Follow her on Instagram @marissashinesbright. Visit a full calendar of art events on alleyartaurora.com/artscene.