The Evanston skyline in winter. Photo: Jaysin Trevino from Evanston, IL, US / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Local artists had three ways into the market in the spring of 2013: a new retail collective on Sherman Avenue and application windows for two summer festivals.
The Galleria on Sherman
The Andersonville Galleria, a Chicago artist collective that began with a holiday-season pop-up, opened a permanent second location at 1627 Sherman Ave. in downtown Evanston. Time Out Chicago reported in mid-March 2013 that it would open at the end of the month with more than 40 vendors selling paintings, jewelry, T-shirts and other goods. The Evanston shop was called Galleria in Evanston.
The model is closer to a cooperative than a conventional gallery. Artists and makers share a storefront and sell directly to shoppers, which gives small producers a retail address without a long lease of their own. At the time of its opening the Evanston site was still recruiting local artists.
The summer festivals
Two juried festivals run by the City of Evanston were also taking applications. The Evanston Lakeshore Arts Festival, scheduled for Aug. 3-4, was open to fine artists who exhibit locally or nationally, with applications due April 1. The Evanston Ethnic Arts Festival, set for July 20-21, took applications from artists and craft vendors whose work reflects the heritage of a national, regional, tribal or language group, with a deadline of April 22.
The two events differ in emphasis. The Lakeshore festival is a fine art show, while the Ethnic Arts Festival is organized around cultural tradition, including craft.
Sherman Avenue is downtown Evanston’s main north-south retail street, running past the Sherman Plaza development and a short walk from the CTA Davis Street station. A storefront there put the Galleria in the path of daytime shoppers, theatergoers and Northwestern students, which is the traffic that independent sellers usually lack.
A busy spring for the arts
The openings and deadlines came as the City Council was weighing a broader arts plan. The Daily Northwestern reported in March 2013 that a consultant’s report, based on input from 750 residents, counted 85 arts organizations in Evanston, 14 of them with budgets under $100,000. For individual artists working outside those institutions, a shared shop and a juried festival booth were practical options.
Sources: Time Out Chicago and the Daily Northwestern.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
