Weekly Summer Edition
MichiganDaily.com
INDEX
Vol. CXXI, No. 136 | © 2015 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
NEWS ....................................
OPINION ...............................
ARTS ......................................
SUDOKU................................
SPORTS.................................
inside
2
4
8
2
11
Artists flock to A2 for 56th annual Art Fair
Event organizers and
officials prepare for four
unique fairs
By JACKIE CHARNIGA and LARA
MOEHLMAN
Daily Staff Reporter and
Summer Managing News Editor
After a year of intense collaboration
between local officials and event organizers,
the 56th annual award-winning Ann Arbor
Art Fair returns to Tree Town Wednesday.
Occupying 30 Ann Arbor city blocks,
Art Fair draws roughly 500,000 visitors
to the city to browse the work of a variety
of Michigan-based artists. Many visitors
don’t realize, however, that Art Fair con-
sists of four unique fairs: the “Original”
Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, extending from
North University southward to the Diag,
the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair, located on
Main Street, the State Street Area Art Fair
and the South University Art Fair.
According to Maureen Riley, executive
director of the “Original” Street Art Fair,
each individual fair reflects the unique
personality of its location.
“The character of the neighborhoods
play heavily into the overall feel of each
fair,” Riley said, adding that the State
Street fair is known for its sidewalk sales
while the Summer Art Fair showcases the
many restaurants and shops that line Main
Street, in addition to quality artwork.
Riley said the “Original” fair is organized
by a non-profit arts organization, which
explains the fair’s heavy focus on art over
local businesses.
“Our focus has always been on main-
taining high-quality artistic standards. We
remain small to accomplish that,” Riley
said. “We also are committed to engaging
the public in experiential and educational
opportunities.”
In addition to showcasing artwork, the
“Original” fair offers art demonstrations,
activities and other programs for students.
Although the individual fairs offer dif-
ferent
See FAIR, Page 3
Art Fair: Untold tales of the Urban basement
ARTS
Urban Outfitters
goes to extreme
lengths, offering
crowd-drawing sales
By DANIELLE
RAYKHINSHTEYN
Daily Arts Writer
A headband, a pair of TOMS, a
skirt, a romper, two dresses, three
pairs of jeans and two shirts: a list
of items I bought at Urban Outfit-
ters last year — for approximately
$120. About $11 an item. This is the
magic of Art Fair.
If you’ve never been to Urban
during Art Fair: 1. I would recom-
mend it because you can get half of
a wardrobe for 100 bucks, and 2. It’s
quite the production. As an Urban
Outfitters employee, I help to set
up tents outside the store just like
any other vendor — an 80-foot tent
for women’s clothing and a 40-foot
tent for men’s clothing, all of which
is on sale. This in addition to the
sale section inside the store, and on
top of all the sale bins of shoes and
accessories we put out in the front
of the store.
You can only imagine how
insanely busy this makes us. With
all five registers manned at all
times and at least four mobile regis-
ters outside by the tents for people
paying with cards, there’s still con-
stantly a line of at least 10 to 20 peo-
ple throughout the day. Our normal
hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Our Art
Fair hours are 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
We have our normal fitting
rooms in the back, and we also set
up temporary fitting rooms in the
front of the store. They’re always
filled; there’s always a line.
And while I can’t give exact
numbers, suffice it to say Urban
makes a highly significant number
in the thousands every day during
Art Fair … on merchandise that is
mostly five to 10 dollars. Even as
an employee, I remain astounded
by the amount of merchandise sold
everyday that amounts to such sig-
nificant profits.
OPINION
All in for Art Fair
Aarica Marsh discusses
support for A2 tradition
>> SEE PAGE 4
CELEBRATING OUR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY- FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
July 15, 2015
Ann Arbor, MI
by Francesca Kielb
See URBAN, Page 6