The Michigan Daily--Wedn~sday, July 21 1982-Page 7
Ofart and fun at the fair
By MARK GINDIN
They come in droves of hundreds of thousands. The
numbers boggle the mind. Enough come to town
during these four days to populate the city for an en-
tire year. And those who run into town come from all
walks of life. Each has his own level of understan-
ding.
There are the connoisseurs of art, the ones who look
at hunks of welded and twisted metal, then oogle with
sighs of art appreciation. There are those who come
to get ripped off, and buy unique, yet functional
items, like glass lamps, monogrammed belts, and
pretty pictures to hang on the wall.
AND THERE are those who just sightsee for the.
weekend-the ones who have the bratty little kids
screaming something about being tired and hungry,
who subsequently get swatted by a parent,
whereupon the intensity of their screams increase
approximately tenfold.
To accommodate all these out-of-town visitors to
the circus that is the art fair, merchants offer their
annual once-in-a-lifetime, two-for-one, buy-it-while-
you-can, half-off sales.
And the locals? They just sit back, buy a year's
worth of clothes and goodies at low prices, look at the
funny people, urge them to leave town, and reminisce
about the good old days of smaller art fairs and the
quaint little atmosphere that has been lost to the ex-
travaganza of it all.
THE OLD DAYS probably started as a lark, as they
say, rhaybe even this way ...
Joe and Fred made pots, good pots. The pots were
so good that people asked for the Joe and Fred pots by
name. Joe and Fred didn't have enough money or the of people showing their stuff.
time to set up a pot business, so they just held onto THUS, WE ended up with what we have now, a
their pots until someone wanted to buy one. selection of artists who try and sell their own form of
art to the bizarre forms of life drawn to the event
Their neighbor, Francine the blacksmith, decided
she wanted to sell some of her really neat metal
sculptures that were really leftover pieces of metal
that fell from her horseshoe-making machine into a
heap and formed a really ugly metal welded thing.
She got the idea because one day some idiot had of-
fered her money for one.
The prospective merchants, Joe and Fred and
Francine, organized some of their artist friends,
called it an art fair, for lack of a better phrase, and
announced to the world that art had arrived in the
Midwest. And it was local art, too, which made it bet-
ter.
OTHER PEOPLE in the area also decided that
they had art maybe as good, and asked Joe and Fred
and Francine if they could come, too. Joe and Fred
said it was okay, but Francine was worried about
competition for her welding art. But she let them in
anyway because she didn't understand how a
monopoly worked.
After a few years, having no other outlet for their
creativity, the number of fair exhibits grew, faster
than the founders had anticipated. Soon, thousands
visited the new Midwest art mecca.
The organizers began to get worried, so they inven-
ted a system that required some sort of art quality
test each exhibitor had to pass so junk couldn't inter-
fere with art and there would be a limit to the number
Is it good? Are we happy? Oh, probably. All the
people bring a large amount of money to the city. The
artists get judged-though on a capitalist scale-as to
their popular appeal, so they are happy. And it gives
a lot of people something to look forward to. If it
makes some people happy...
And the people are happy, all 500,000 of them. They
are happy to wait hours in line in the hot sun for
anything worthwhile, such as a 50 2-oz. cup of
lemonade. The herds of people are happy to shuffle.
along in cattle-like movements as they grope along
the exhibit stalls looking for that one mythical item
that Marge told them was here last year. And they
are happy to wipe the spilled Coke from their chin
and scrape the bubblegum from their shoes.
AND THE stuff for sale, boy, was it worth waiting
for. There are tiny wooden trains, hundreds of blue
frog-shaped water sprinklers, wind chimes made of
polished seashells, photographs from Kodak In-
stamatics, authenic Indian-weaved hanging plant
holders, little men made of pipe cleaners, and lots
and lots and lots of attempts at painting.
Surely, if this is art, our cup runneth over. The
streets are filled with the huckster-artists displaying
their wares, the stores are filled with tourists and art
lovers from the world over, and the visitors get to see
the University of Michigan. We all love a party.
Police say security woes 'minor'
By GEORGE ADAMS
One might think the almost 500,000
people expected to attend this year's
art fair could pose a problem for a city
of about 100,000 residents. But local
police and security forces are confident
they can keep order during the four-day
event.
In addition to a special detail
assigned to patrol the fair, there will be
a police mobile unit at the corner of
South and East University to coor-
dinate the patrolling units, according to
Captain Kenneth Klinge, head of the
Ann Arbor Police Department's
University division.
"WE WILL put out as many people as
Ann Arbor
for parking
By GEORGE ADAMS
If the art fair has one curse accom-
panying it, it is the parking problem the
fair creates in a city not known for
being a parking oasis.
This year, however, the Ann Arbor
Department of Transportation attem-
pted to tackle the parking situation
ahead of time to avoid problems that
have occurred in the past.
VISITORS to the fair are encouraged
to park at Pioneer High School or
Briarwood Mall and take the Ann Arbor
Transportation Authority (AATA) shut-
tle bus to and from the fair. The shuttle
will run continuously from 9 a.m. to 10
p.m., edhesdiy throughFrida ,and 9u
are necessary," Ann Arbor Police Chief
William Corbett said, "but the fair is
really very well-controlled."
Klinge described security problems
created by the fair as "minor," and
said they pose no special threat to
maintaining security.
"The art fair is a kind of carnival at-
mosphere," he said, "and for the most
part, the problems we have during that
time are very minor ones."
The fair also causes some concern on
the part of University security, even
though none of the activities take place
on campus.
"THE MAIN problem we have is that
people from the fair come into our
buildings, and the fact that there are
braces
madness
a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, stopping at
designated areas on a half-hour cycle.
The fare will be the normal 60 cents.
In addition to the parking areas,
passengers will be able to board and
disboard at any intersection in the
vicinity of the three art fairs.
For those who wish to take their cars
directly to the fair area, parking is
available at all city parking structures
for a $3 fee per day.
As is customary, cars parked in "No
Parking" or "Tow Away" zones will be
ticketed and towed if necessary. In ad-
dition, any parked vehicle blocking a
fire lane, on private property, or
creating a traffic flow problem, will be
towed.
thousands more people in the campus
area," University Safety Director
Walter Stevens said.
"We won't be putting out more
patrols than normal," he said, "but we
certainly give the fair a great deal of at-
tention."
Stevens added that the art fair
doesn't present any particularly
unusual problems for campus security,
just more of the same ones they already
have. "Most of our problems come
from non-University people, anyway,"
he said.
UNIVERSITY Safety's major role,
Stevens said, will be to cooperate with
the Ann Arbor police and to watch the
campus area more carefully.
Since the event does not officially in-
volve the University, campus security
has no real jurisdiction over the fair or
those attending, Stevens explained,
unless they come on campus.
The normal seven-member Ann Ar-
bor police University patrol, according
to Klinge, will be supplemented with at
least three other officers, who will be on
duty at the fair between the hours of 9
a.m. and 10 p.m.
In addition, each of the three art fairs
have hired private security companies
to guard the exhibits, Klinge said.
Various community groups have also
offered their services to the police to
act as guides and finders of lost
children, he added.
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