Door County Festival of the Arts – the Peninsula’s All-Encompassing Art Event

When you grow up in a small community such as Door County, inevitably you take a few things for granted. For me, one of those things was the vibrant arts and cultural community we have on the peninsula. I knew that Door County had fostered and promoted the careers of a whole bunch of artists and writers and musicians, but I suppose I had never thought about Door County as an arts destination – a thought which has certainly been reversed as I’ve grown older. With over 100 galleries, studios, and places of cultural interest, Door County is an art lover’s dream – and to be honest, I’ve found no other place that combines a wide range of artistic interests and mediums with as beautiful a landscape as our backdrop of the peninsula.

If there’s one place in Door County that not only celebrates this fact but also promotes it, it would have to be the Francis Hardy Center for the Arts (FHCA). Founded in 1962 by the Peninsula Arts Association (PAA) in honor of Francis Howe Hardy, a former Ephraim resident and tireless advocate of Door County arts, the Hardy’s mission has long been to promote awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the arts through a variety of outreach programs, events, and exhibitions. One of the biggest events that adheres to this mission is their annual Door County Festival of the Arts, which is set for Saturday and Sunday, August 9 and 10. The event spans the communities of Ephraim and Sister Bay.

When the Door County Festival of the Arts began, it had a simple goal: to stage an event that would celebrate the importance of the arts in Door County while educating the public about different art-making processes. “Door County is unique in that the life of the community here and the importance of the arts are inextricably linked,” says Elizabeth Meissner, who works as the interim Executive Director for the FHCA. “The FHCA has always been committed to creating a climate of understanding and appreciation for the arts on the peninsula, and the festival has worked to become another extension of that goal.”

Taking place solely in and around the heart of Ephraim for the past five years, the festival has increased in both size and attendance; therefore, the event has expanded to include both the villages of Ephraim and Sister Bay. “Sister Bay’s Hendrickson Park had the qualities that were necessary for our visual artists and hands-on activities – shade, no black asphalt, and ample green space,” said Meissner. “The festival’s popularity has been increasing, and it was getting to the point where we had to make a change – either expand the festival and offer different locales, or discontinue the festival altogether. Having the festival hosted in partnership with Ephraim and Sister Bay is a good balance.”

The majority of the festival’s activities, such as the visual art fair, children’s activities, musical entertainment, culinary, and literary activities will be in downtown Sister Bay – but there are two special activities that will be held in Ephraim. One event, the “Dawn ‘Til Dusk” Water’s Edge Artists will be plein air painting in and around Ephraim’s historic district. The Water’s Edge Artists group was formed in 2006 and is dedicated to the stewardship ethic through their art in regards to the preservation and conservation of the Lakeshore Basin’s waterways. According to Meissner, the artists will be painting all weekend in Ephraim. Another event, the FHCA’s Community Mosaic project will be on display at the Francis Hardy Gallery for the public to view. The Mosaic Project is another initiative designed to raise awareness for the arts in Door County. Three hundred and twelve individual six-inch square canvases have been crafted by community members, youth, and artists of all skill levels and ages. The canvases have been constructed into a colorful mosaic and hung in the gallery concurrently with another Hardy Exhibit, the Collection Invitational. Individual canvases will be sold at a nominal fee, with the proceeds benefiting the gallery. “It’s a way for the community to enjoy the aesthetic benefits of owning original artwork,” Meissner says. Both the Collection Invitational and the Mosaic Project will be on display through Monday, September 1.

Sister Bay’s downtown will be a flurry of activity on Saturday, August 9 as well, with many new artistic mediums being added to the Door County Festival of the Arts schedule this year. “We wanted to give all types of artists an outlet to show their work – not just those who create visual art,” says Meissner. Besides almost 60 Door County visual artists that will be selling and demonstrating their work, especially exciting this year is the inclusion of the culinary and literary arts. Chefs Terry Milligan (The Inn at Kristofer’s) and Janice Thomas (Savory Spoon Cooking School) will be on hand to give Saturday cooking demonstrations, and 11 different Door County writers will be giving readings from their work in the festival’s first-ever Literary Tent. Passtimes Books’ Marge Grutzmacher has been instrumental in organizing the Literary Tent, and has also coordinated a special writing activity in which participants can only write their memoirs in six words or less.

New also for this year’s festival is an expanded focus on the county’s cultural offerings. The FHCA partnered with the Ephraim Historical Foundation at last year’s festival, and that partnership has expanded to include not only the foundation but also the Sister Bay Historical Society. The Ephraim Historical Foundation will offer their second-annual “Free Museum Day” on Saturday, August 9, with complimentary admission into all five of their museum buildings from 11 am – 4 pm that afternoon. The Sister Bay Historical Society’s “Corner of the Past” on Country Lane in Sister Bay will also be open on that day, and will feature three separate events: a pancake breakfast in the barn, a Heritage Program on chip carving, and the society’s famous Saturday Farmer’s Market. Besides the respective programs of the two organizations, the foundation and the historical society will also team up to offer cultural tours led by docents from both organizations. These tours will be held on a Door County trolley that will take passengers between Ephraim and downtown Sister Bay. The trolley is scheduled to stop at the foundation’s Anderson Barn History Center and the Sister Bay Historical Society’s Corner of the Past, so that interested passengers have a chance to tour these historic sites.

Musical and theatrical performances will happen every hour on the hour from 10 am – 4 pm in the Sister Bay Beach Park/Hendrickson Park Gazebo, with the beloved Birch Creek Ambassadors kicking off the entertainment. Local favorites Richard Whitney, the Jay Whitney Trio, Envie (Ken Jeansonne & Trio), and the pair of Jeanne Kuhns and Lynn Gudmunsen will also be performing, as well as members of one of Door County’s best-loved theatre groups, the American Folklore Theatre. The Jay Whitney Trio will perform not only for a concert in the afternoon, but also for a special sunset performance from 7 – 9:30 pm.

The festival has always had a variety of activities for children, and this year is no exception. A special Children’s Tent includes fun things for kids to do throughout the entire day, such as henna/hand painting, mask making, and making puzzle pins. Also, Jodi Littler and Fran Burton, two children’s authors, will be giving readings of the children’s books they have penned.

Overall, Meissner thinks that this year’s Door County Festival of the Arts will be a huge success. “I am excited that different varieties of artistic mediums will be available to people in one locale,” she says. “It’s rewarding to be able to expose residents and visitors alike to the Door County arts community as a whole.”

The Francis Hardy Center for the Arts’ Door County Festival of the Arts will take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 9 & 10, with events happening in the historic communities of Ephraim and Sister Bay. Support for the Door County Festival of the Arts comes from the Door County Art League, Ephraim Business Council, Ephraim Historical Foundation, Sister Bay Advancement Association, Sister Bay Historical Society, Wisconsin Public Radio, and in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information on the Hardy’s Festival of the Arts, please call 920.854.9688 or visit the official Festival website at http://www.doorcountyfestivalofthearts.com.