Keeping a Tradition of Sidewalk Art Festivals Alive Downtown

Portland Fine Craft Show Returns to Free Street

By Tony Zeli

Sidewalk art festivals are a part of Portland culture. For over fifty years, the celebrated WCSH6 Sidewalk Art Festival drew crowds of tens of thousands of art lovers to downtown. It was hugely popular, even before the creation of the Arts District and the First Friday Art Walk transformed Portland in the early 2000’s. Today, the Portland Fine Craft Show helps to keep the tradition of sidewalk art festivals alive.

The Portland Fine Craft Show returns to its location at 120 Free Street, a large private parking lot near the Portland Museum of Art, on Saturday, August 26th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is open to the public and admission is free. All are welcome. (The West End News is a longtime supporter and publisher of the show guide, providing a map of exhibitor booths.)

The Portland Fine Craft Show is known for its high attendance. But it makes sense, Portland loves art, right? So, why aren’t there more shows like this?

“There are so many wonderful shows here in Portland, just in a different format, like makers’ markets,” said Simonne Feeney, Shop Maine Craft Program Manager and Director of the Portland Fine Craft Show. Feeney noted Shop Maine Craft also produces a market called East End Vend, featuring pop-up events hosted by local businesses. “We are seeing a rise in these markets all across the state.”

STREET FAIR ATMOSPHERE

The WCSH6 Sidewalk Art Festival ran all the way down Congress Street from Longfellow Square to Monument Square. It was a day for taking over the downtown streets and sidewalks with art.

“It was always exciting when that was on the street,” said Patricia Daunis, a jewelry maker whose shop is on Congress Street. “I think it was real special; the street fair element of it was real fun.”  

The Sidewalk Art Fest began to shrink in footprint in its final years, leaving the area from High Street to Longfellow Square open for opportunity. There was no substantial fine craft show going in Portland at the time.

“About 2013, I thought if there was a craft show in this section it’d be a win-win for everyone,” said Daunis, and she brought her idea to the Maine Crafts Association. A couple years later, in 2015, the Portland Fine Craft Show held its first show on the same day as the WCSH6 Sidewalk Art Festival.

The shows ran side by side for a couple of years and worked well together. But 2016 was the last year for the WCSH6 festival.  

PORTLAND FINE CRAFT SHOW CONTINUES…

Luckily, the Portland Fine Craft Show continued. They had five great seasons along Congress Street before the pandemic forced a pause in 2020. The show reappeared the following year in its current location in the Free Street Parking Lot.

For its eighth season the show features over 100 juried exhibitors. They will exhibit their craft in every category you can imagine: baskets, ceramics, textiles, furniture, glass, jewelry, printmaking, metalwork…

“Our mission is to support the livelihoods of craft artists and to advance the contemporary craft economy,” said show director Feeney. “Craft shows like this one are a valuable aspect of uplifting and promoting craft artists.”

Every year Shop Maine Craft selects three respected artists and curators from the craft community to become show jurors. These jurors score each applicant using guidelines of craftsmanship, originality, and overall impressions. The result is exceptional work gets invited back year after year, but also new eye-catching work makes its way into the show.

Daunis was a juror for this year and loved the opportunity to pore over all the exceptional work which she received sometime in January or February. “There was great stuff. It was a great eye vacation to look at all those beautiful things in the middle of winter.”

Luckily, you get to catch it all on a summer day while enjoying one of Portland’s great traditions: sidewalk art festivals.