More than 350 Louisville-area, Kentucky-based and out-of-state artist applicants competed for 220 spots in the 37th Annual Cherokee Triangle Art Fair, which is held in Louisville’s historic Cherokee Triangle neighborhood. The spring event is sponsored by the Cherokee Triangle Association and this year’s Art Fair will be held on Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27, the week/files/storyimages/before the Kentucky Derby. Hours for the Art Fair are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., both days. It is free and open to the public.
For 2008, a total of 220 artists were juried into the fair. The selected participants include Art Fair veterans as well as newcomers. The Cherokee Triangle Art Fair is an outdoor event held in Louisville’s Cherokee Triangle neighborhood on tree-lined Cherokee Parkway between Willow Avenue and Cherokee Road at the Gen. John Breckinridge Castleman statue.
Along with viewing and purchasing original arts and crafts and meeting and talking with artists, Art Fair patrons can also enjoy food, entertainment and music. Family-friendly, the Art Fair features a popular children’s art activity tent, a plant booth with striking plants and a variety of herbs for sale, and the association booth with its offerings of clothing and other items with the Cherokee Triangle logo. On Saturday evening, music and food service will continue until 8 p.m.
The Cherokee Triangle Art Fair is the major fundraiser for Louisville’s Cherokee Triangle Association, and its proceeds are returned to the community and neighborhood in numerous ways. Annually, the Cherokee Triangle Association uses proceeds from the fair to fund summer concerts in Willow Park, to maintain the General Castleman statue and its landscaping, and to make donations to the Highlands/Shelby Park branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, the Highlands Communities Ministries and to the Olmsted Parks Conservancy.
Art Fair proceeds also fund an Association office and staff, the
Cherokee Triangle Association web site, www.cherokeetriangle.org, and the quarterly Cherokee Triangle Newsletter. In the past, proceeds from the Art Fair have provided some of the funding for the Willow Park restrooms renovation, as well as the authoring and publication of the Cherokee Triangle history book entitled, Cherokee Triangle, A History of the Heart of the Highlands.
In a related event, on Friday evening, April 25, the Legal Aid Society holds its fifth annual Art Fair preview party fundraiser, the Brush, Bottle, and Barrel of the Bluegrass, at Louisville Collegiate School from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Collegiate’s Mary Rodes Lannert Athletic Center. Collegiate is located at 2427 Glenmary Avenue in Louisville. Twenty selected artists who are participating in the Cherokee Triangle Art Fair will display and sell their art in advance. Tickets are $75 and may be purchased at the door, or in advance by calling (502) 584-1254.
Setup for the Cherokee Triangle Art Fair begins on Friday, April 25, and the streets of the Art Fair will be closed to through traffic at 5 p.m. on Friday evening and will reopen to traffic at 8 p.m. on Sunday evening after the shut-down and clean-up following the Art Fair. Because the Kentucky Derby Festival marathon and mini-marathon on Saturday morning traverse some streets near the Art Fair, access to the neighborhood and Art Fair will be more challenging then.
For the safety of all patrons, the Art Fair is a pet-free zone. Attendees are asked to leave their pets at home. Also, Art Fair organizers request there be no skateboards, skates or rollerblades, and that cyclists walk their bikes within the Art Fair.
For directions to the Cherokee Triangle Art Fair or other fair information, check the Cherokee Triangle web site at www.cherokeetriangle.org.
