From painting to sculpting, crafting, sewing and baking, Evanston’s art scene was on full display when Evanston Made hosted their annual Big Art Weekend on Saturday and Sunday.
The two-day event showcased over 150 artists from Evanston and the surrounding area and included artists’ studio tours, First Saturday Arts Events and a Maker’s Market.
Lisa Degliantoni, founder and co-director of Evanston Made, created the organization in 2014 to generate visibility for local artists. It hosts a variety of free events to promote artists and highlight their role in the Evanston community.
Ceramics artist and Evanston resident Joanna Kramer has participated in Evanston Made and the Big Arts Weekend for several years. The organization has positively impacted her business, she said.
“They have really helped get the word out about my art,” Kramer said. “It’s really been a big part of why I think my business has grown — because of Evanston Made.”
This year’s Big Art Weekend featured a variety of artistic mediums, including pottery and painting to doll house building and bird making.
When Degliantoni moved to Evanston in 2012, it was difficult to connect with the arts, she said. But through Evanston Made, she painted new strokes.
“A lot of people have boundaries to art — looking at it, talking about it, purchasing it,” Degliantoni said. “We just feel like this weekend is an ideal opportunity for anyone remotely interested in the arts in Evanston to explore.”
In the West Village neighborhood of Evanston, Holly Greenberg, a printmaker and painter, participated in Big Art Weekend for the first time this year. She moved to Evanston just weeks ago and said the move has helped her promote sustainability through her work.
Greenberg’s current project, titled “Bird Collisions in the Anthropocene,” centers around promoting safe practices for window treatments to prevent bird deaths. She’s inviting the community to help her create life-sized bird sculptures from upcycled cloth every few weeks. At Big Art Weekend, she hosted two bird-making sessions.
“Evanston has a really high proportion of people who are artistic, and that is something that’s definitely quite special,” she said.
In addition to studio tours, Evanston Made held their monthly First Saturday Art Event, where community members are invited to shop for handmade products, meet small business owners and engage in sketching workshops.
For Degliantoni, the wide variety of creative pursuits differentiates Evanston’s art scene.
“This weekend alone, we have a fiber artist, a ceramics artist, a letter press artist, a painter, a photographer, a screen printer, a book maker and it just goes on and on and on,” she said.
Melissa Blount, a clinical psychologist and artist, owns a letterpress printing studio with her husband Ben Blount. They opened their studio to the public during Big Art Weekend, providing an inside look into their process.
She said their work reflects questions of race and identity, and they attribute their success to the Evanston art community.
“Evanston is really unique in the way that they celebrate and lift artists up,” she said. “I think we’ll be forever grateful to Evanston for that because it’s definitely where I found my artistic path.”
Sunday’s events included additional studio tours and a Maker’s Market, where market goers shopped a variety of handmade goods and art from Evanston creators. Located in a parking garage in downtown Evanston, vendors and art-lovers spent the afternoon getting to know Evanston’s art community.
Degliantoni said she is noticing Evanston’s art scene is growing, and this weekend reflected that process.
“We’re seeing more people make Evanston an arts destination,” she said. “Our reach for who comes to these things is geographically much bigger than it’s ever been before.”
Email: wallisrogin2029@u.northwestern.edu
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