Annual Fourth Street Festival planning begins

For more than 30 years, the Fourth Street Festival of Arts and Crafts has been a Bloomington tradition.\nThe John Waldron Arts Center kicked off the festival Friday, Aug. 3, with an open reception that previewed local artists’ work.\nApproximately 100 artists gathered at the Rosemary P. Miller and Flashlight galleries in the center to celebrate one thing: local art. \nBloomington artists created the Fourth Street Festival in 1976, and it has since grown to include artists from all over the country, according to the event Web site.\nEd Vande Sande, interim executive director of the Bloomington Area Arts Council, said the works of nine Bloomington artists are on display in the center, and approximately 55 to 60 more are being displayed throughout the neighborhood.\n“It’s such an eclectic sample of everything in the neighborhood,” he said.\nThe purpose of the event was to provide a social atmosphere where artists and patrons \ncould mingle.\nJohnnie Belinda, Bloomington artist and board member of the Bellevue Art Gallery, 107 W. Ninth St., said she has been an artist her entire life but has only become serious about it in the last seven years.\nBelinda said she feels the BAAC helps the arts community because of all the classes and workshops it has to offer.\n“I think everybody is creative,” she said. “They just have to come out of their box.”\nBelinda describes her work as experimental and said a lot of it comes from her psyche and meditation. She said she writes down what she sees so she can paint it later, and she has recently been painting nude body forms and \npet portraits.\nShe said the one thing she loves most about being an artist is being able to create what’s on her mind.\nBloomington artist Carol Miller said most of her work is abstract or expressionist, but she doesn’t like to give her work a title.\n“(I love) painting experiences with color,” she said.\nMiller explained that she lived in California earlier in her life and, while there, she noticed art that was on trash cans, buses and buildings. She said that even though there is a lot of art in Bloomington, the city needs more public art.\nMiller was showing two pieces of artwork in the Flashlight Gallery.\nVande Sande said Bloomington’s art economy is very small, totaling approximately $45 million.\n“We’re not even at half our potential,” he said, “and the city recognizes that ... to try and help those things \n(move) forward.”\nHe explained that the arts community needs to focus on cultural tourism because, to him, some of the best artwork happens through collaboration. \nVande Sande said he hopes to increase the arts economy in Bloomington. He is confident it will happen, especially with Miah Michaelsen, former executive director of the BAAC, now working as the director of economic development for the arts with the City of Bloomington.\nAlthough the doors to the reception closed at 7 p.m., the rest of the Fourth Street Festival will be held Sept. 1 and Sept. 2 at Fourth and Grant Streets and is open to the public.