Autumn & Art: Paddle boat rides, singles mixer among new events at festival

For four straight years, Autumn & Art has drawn big crowds to Bradley Fair Parkway, the winding street behind the popular east Wichita shopping center at 21st and Rock Road, for a weekend full of art shopping, food and (sometimes) falling temperatures.

Now that organizers are entering the festival’s fifth year, they said, they can step back and see that the juried art show and sale have evolved into an event that’s just right for Wichita.

“I think it’s really coming into its own in terms of its stature as an arts and culture event,” said Mary Beth Jarvis, the president of Wichita Festivals Inc., which puts on the event. “We had a record number of applicants in terms of artists, and the jury continues to affirm that the level of quality keeps going up.”

This year’s Autumn & Art, scheduled for this weekend, will feature the work of 99 artists, who will be selling drawings, photographs, jewelry, ceramic pieces and more. The artists come from 21 states, and the list of participants includes 21 artists from Kansas. Ten are from Wichita.

Pieces for sale range from a $20 piece of jewelry to a piece of original art that costs several thousand dollars.

“We have a really nice mix of great national and local artists,” Jarvis said. “We are right now at our capacity goal for artists, and we feel like this is the right number for this market.”

The event is free to attend, and attendees can shop, listen to live music and enjoy food for purchase from several Bradley Fair restaurants.

Festival organizers also have put an emphasis over the past few years on adding family-friendly events, and this year, they’ve added one more.

Wichita Festivals Inc. recently purchased the paddle boats they use at the Wichita Riverfest each summer. Previously, they had rented them. Now they’re free to use them however they want and will launch them on the Bradley Fair lake during Autumn & Art. A 15-minute ride costs $5 a person.

Other kids’ activities include an art studio where children can make their own masterpieces, a no-adults-allowed gallery where they can shop for their first (inexpensive) piece of art and games that allow children to interact with art pieces, including a new pin-the-earring-on-the-“Girl With a Pearl Earring” game.

Attendees who want to have a more adult experience can pay for “patron” status. That costs $100 a person and includes a Friday-night party with food, drink, music by the Cherokee Maidens and a silent auction. Patrons also get close parking spaces and free adult beverages throughout the weekend.

Organizers also added a wine tasting to the weekend that’s intended for singles. Hosted by Suzanna Mathews, a local dating expert known as “The Date Maven,” the mixer will be from 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is a $25 ticket available at the door.

A panel of judges will inspect all the art and award prizes to the visiting artists. Among the judges is Robert Workman, the director of the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University.

He first got involved in the festival last year after moving to Wichita to take the Ulrich job.

Workman said he was impressed by the quality of the art at Wichita’s festival – and he’s been to many during his career.

“The overall quality of the art is high, and that’s exciting, because it develops more people interested in art and more collectors of art,” he said.

Las Vegas-based fiber artist Prince Duncan-Williams, who is returning to Autumn & Art for a third time, was chosen as the festival’s featured artist. His silk fiber mosaic “Rhythms III” is featured on the festival’s 2014 poster.

Among the Wichita artists who will have booths at the festival are ceramic artists Elisabeth Owens and Michael Schlyer, printmaker Stephen Perry, pastel artist Don Coons and glass artist Scott Garrelts. Popular regional artists in attendance will include Benton glass maker Scott Hartley and Sheldon Granstrom, a ceramics artist from Hays

This story was originally published September 12, 2014 at 9:22 AM with the headline "Autumn & Art: Paddle boat rides, singles mixer among new events at festival."