An artistic tradition

Besides its infamous restaurants, Fourth Street will offer another attraction to visitors this weekend as the Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts makes its annual appearance.

Now in its 32nd year, the festival brings artists from across the United States to Bloomington for this free, two-day event. One reason it is so successful is because the organizers know firsthand what draws artists to a festival.

“It was formed by a group of artists,” said David Goodrum, president of the Fourth Street Festival committee. “It’s been run by that committee all these years.”

Goodrum has also been on both sides of the festival, as an organizer and as an artist.

“I’ve done photography all my life,” he said, “and it was over the past few years I’ve begun doing art shows.”

The festival will be comprised of a community booth section and the professional artists, as well as a play area for children and all-day live music from local bands, including Carlyn Lindsey & the band SnakeDoctor.

“We do blues, R&B, swing – basically, dance music,” said drummer Tim Haas.

This year’s performance will be bittersweet – the band members’ friend and original bass player T Scot Halpin died Feb. 9.

“He was a really great guy and all of us in Bloomington’s art and music community miss him a lot,” Haas said in an e-mail.

This year’s festival will honor Halpin by featuring some of his artwork on the official festival T-shirt.

Sandy Taylor, the community booth coordinator and one of the jurors who decides “Best of Show” and other awards, has been part of the festival for almost 20 years.

“I just love to be part of the festival,” she said. “It’s a great chance to see artists from Indiana and from other states as well.”

The committee is also introducing a new feature: the Bloomington Community Tree. The trunk is carved from limestone and the branches are made of reclaimed baling wire and wrapped with yarn. Children can decorate the more than 500 oversize elm leaves made from recycled and reclaimed materials such as wood, leather, plastic, clay and matte board.

“It will be displayed in the BEAD district for some time once it’s completed,” Goodrum said, referring to the Bloomington Entertainment and Arts District, an area in downtown Bloomington devoted to business and culture.

Fourth Street is a pragmatic location not just because of its central location, but also because of the great restaurants that are nearby, Goodrum said.

Artist booths draw heavy competition – of the roughly 360 applicants, only 112 artists made the cut, Goodrum said. Five art experts, who have more than 130 years of combined experience as art professionals, determined the selections.

“It’s a hard festival to get into,” Haas said. “It’s the largest and most prestigious festival in south-central Indiana.”

The jurors ranked each artist based on four images of the professional’s work and on his or her booth concept.

As a University Information Technology Services director, Goodrum believes art and science can complement each other and said his UITS position actually helped him when coordinating details for the festival.

“It takes advantage of organizational skills I use in my day job,” he said.

Goodrum estimated that the festival attracts about 25,000 people in a good year.

“People come not only from Bloomington, but from all over the region,” he said. “It’s just an incredibly enjoyable community event.”


WHEN 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
WHERE Buskirk-Chumley Theater More info Admission: free. For more information go to www.buskirk-chumleytheater.street. festival. googlepages.com/