Fourth Street Festival delivers art, entertainment

Rick Canham traveled over 2000 miles from Portland, Ore. to Bloomington to show film prints of Tibetan people he had photographed in Nepal.

Canham’s long travels were worth it, as he said the show had been successful. Visitors cycled in and out of his tent, admiring the brightly colored images.

“I’m here for several art events, but I’m here at this one because it has a great reputation,” Canham said about the Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts, which has happened annually since 1977.

While the temperatures hovered around 90 degrees, 120 artists from all over the country united in Bloomington this weekend to show off their arts at the fair.

The show ran Saturday and Sunday, and vendors displayed everything from wooden furniture to handmade kaleidoscopes.

Along with the art for sale, attendees were able to purchase food from surrounding ethnic food restaurant stands and learn about local organizations at their stands on South Grant Street. As visitors walked down the street, they could listen to the Bloomington Storytellers Guild at the Spoken Word Stage or the live music of the Hoosier Youth Philharmonic,

Although the show was originally created as a way for Indiana artists to show off their work, vendors now come from across the U.S.

Miky and Steve Cunningham, self-taught potters from Iowa that work on every piece together, displayed their work at the show for the third time.

“With the heat, I thought I did really well yesterday,” Miky said. “I would say I do about 40 shows a year, so I’d say it’s above the average show.”

The couple won the Barb Bihler Award for Functional Ceramics, which is named in memory of the influential Bloomington potter involved in the fair before her death in 1999.

Nine vendors received other various awards, and Canham was also a winner.

“I’m always honored when somebody thinks that I’m worthy,” Canham said about being his third place win for 2-D art. “Being singled out like that is really neat.”

Follow reporter Amanda Arnold on Twitter @Amanda_Arnold14.