By JillAnderson

A Lake Barcroft Art Festival? You bet. Our very own Art Festival!

The 1st (hopefully Annual) Lake Barcroft Art Festival showcasing the works of local and regional artists will be taking place this coming weekend at 6364 Lakeview Drive.

Our neighbor and friend, Matt Friedman is co-hosting (along with Denny Horner) this very special event at his nearly completed Lake-front home on both Saturday and Sunday, Nov 14th & 15th from 12 pm until 5 pm.

Artists preparing for the Festival

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to interview Matt (via email so as to not infect him with the flu bug) regarding the event:

How did you come up with the idea for an art festival?
Matt: I was walking around the house one evening as the sun was setting, and kept thinking about how wonderful the house would look with art on the walls that could pick up the evening sun. This started a train of thought. I started envisioning all the local artists in lake Barcroft and which pieces would look really good on the walls. Since the house is so close to completion, and will be going on the market soon, this win-win idea struck me.

The tall walls, modern design, and significant amount of natural light, all make for a great art social gathering. The win win, is that we would like to get lots of traffic through the house as it enters the market, and we wanted to provide a venue for the artists to show their work to the neighborhood as well as to potential buyers. Some of the artists have agreed to consign some of their art at the house, so it will remain to adorn the walls after the event is complete.

Matt hauling art(?) up the stairs. Check out at those windows. Wow.

How many local artists will be showing their work? What types of work?
Matt: We are still working out the final details but we should have between 20 and 30 artists displaying work at the event.

Is there a charge to come to the Art Festival?
Matt: No charge to come to the festival, we invite all to come, enjoy, and please support the artists. Also, if anyone is interesting in a modern contemporary new home on the waterfront.

What are the low and high price ranges for the artwork?
Matt: The prices will range from a couple of hundred dollars to well over ten thousand.

You’re hosting this event at your newly completed home on Lakeview Dr. Is the art festival intended to drive traffic to generate sales leads for the house?
Matt: In short, the answer is yes. Actually, I am hoping to accomplish a couple of things with this event. The first is to create traffic for the house, the second is to hopefully initiate what could become an annual Barcroft event. Finally, I simply wanted to take advantage of the fact that the house will be empty, and have a fun event.

Did you rent furniture for the house?
Matt: No. The house will be mostly unfurnished for the event.

In one of your lakelink postings you mentioned that you might hold a second event that would be more of a gallery type event. Please explain.
Matt: Many of the artists have asked if they could keep the art there and have a focused gallery style event for some of their patrons. We agreed, since they have been so cooperative in supporting this event.

What will be your measure of success for an event like this? Turnout? Artist sales?
Matt: There are a number of measures that we could use to gauge the event, but honestly, if the event creates such a draw from artists and attendees that we have a second annual event next year. We should claim victory!

I am really looking forward to the event. How about you?

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