Weekly Summer Edition
MichiganDaily.com

INDEX

Vol. CXXI, No. 136 | © 2015 The Michigan Daily 
michigandaily.com

NEWS ....................................
OPINION ............................... 
ARTS ......................................
SUDOKU................................
SPORTS.................................

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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

