Open Air Art Voted Down in Ephraim

At its meeting June 4 at the Ephraim Administrative Office, the Ephraim Planning Committee voted down a motion to allow open air painting as part of the Ephraim Business Council’s Evenings in Ephraim.

“[The committee’s] feeling was that the open air painters, by code, were in direct competition with existing permanent businesses within the village,” said Brent Bristol, zoning administrator for the Village of Ephraim, who was present at the meeting.

Chapter 12 of the village code prohibits direct sellers and service vendors – or individuals providing a service or entertainment – from engaging in direct sales or services on public property without registration with the village.

Evenings in Ephraim take place on Monday nights in the summer with a concert in the Harborside Park gazebo. In past years, some area businesses would stay open past normal hours, but after receiving complaints from its members about the late night shopping, the Ephraim Business Council (EBC) decided to look for other attractions.

The idea to invite open air, or plein air, painters to Evenings in Ephraim was proposed to the EBC by the Hardy Gallery in February as a way to spotlight local artists and attract people to the village, said Rachel Willems, tourism administrator for the EBC.

“It sounded like the members of the planning commission thought the entertainment we were proposing was in direct competition with permanent Ephraim businesses,” Willems said. “We had absolutely no inclination that this would have the repercussions that it did.”

The EBC first brought the open air painting concept to the Planning Committee on April 23 as part of its Evenings in Ephraim event proposal. The committee postponed its decision on the event until it had more information. Committee members asked the EBC to poll its business members for feedback.

The EBC submitted results of the survey to the committee, as well as a sample contract for participating artists that stated artists would not sell their work.

Thirty EBC members took the survey, and only three outright opposed the addition of open air painters to Evenings in Ephraim.