Event Information
Event Overview
For 51 years, Art in the Park has been held in historic Hackley Park. This year, the Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce is taking over the historic event and making it into a true Lakeshore Arts Festival!
A unique blend of arts, crafts, music, food and fun along the shoreline in historic Downtown Muskegon. More than 200 artists and crafters will be showcased with fine art in the park, crafts, children’s activities and Michigan food market all wrapped up in a street party atmosphere.
More information including maps and entertainment will be available as the event gets closer.
Interested in being involved or participating?
Click here to be added to the volunteer contact list for volunteer opportunities.
If you are interested specifically in the Children’s Lane, click here.
Musicians, entertainers and street performers, please click here.
Map of the Festival
Click here to view a map of the festival.
Area Information
Transportation:
Event Category Descriptions
The Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce is proud to be hosting the Lakeshore Art Festival this year. A few enhancements have been introduced this year in order to insure the festival’s success for years to come. The park will be reserved for “fine art” or “fine craft” and the street area will feature unique “crafts”, street performers and Children’s Lane. Definitions of fine art/craft and craft are listed below.
Our jury was comprised of local artists, art educators and key Lakeshore Art Festival committee members. During the blind jury process, jurors examined photos submitted by art and craft exhibitors and scored each entry on a scale from 1 to 5. From these scores, and taking into account the uniqueness of the item, pricing and quality, exhibitors where categorized into fine art/craft or general craft areas.
Fine Art: Traditionally, has been, painting and sculpture. Drawing and printmaking also rank within fine art, as lesser forms of painting. Ceramics, photography, glass, mixed media, performance, textiles, and the like are all now also considered fine art. That being said, “fine art” as defined by the Lakeshore Art Festival is a high-quality medium, that is unique and artfully made with a conscious intent to engage in the tradition of art-making and a resulting object that is art for its own sake.
Fine Craft: Objects that can have a functional intent, but are made or decorated as to be singular or rare objects. These objects tend to be luxury items and extraordinary or quite unique. Hand made furniture, ceramic vessels, glass objects, jewelry, and the like fall into this category. The line between fine art and fine craft blurs very quickly. Again, in broad strokes, fine craft becomes fine art when the methods and materials used to create the object are traditional (ceramic, glass, wood working, weaving, etc.) but the object is made with the intention of functioning primarily as an art object, of and for its own sake.
Craft: Best viewed as a wholesale, commercial product. Objects in this category tend to be easily and quickly made, with common forms and subject matter. Ceramics and glass are the best examples. A potter can throw pots and platters quickly and efficiently. They are hand made, but primarily functional. The ceramist may then have more complex, involved works they consider their art. Glass is similar. Many artists work on what they call “production pieces” – goblets, cups, bowls, etc, and then have their own, more sculptural fine art glass. Jewelry is another good example. Think Fabrege egg versus everything in the displays at Zales. Painting and photography can also fall into this category, primarily through subject matter. Painters can easily adopt a formula that lets them mass-produce similar landscapes and abstract paintings in very short order. These pieces are common and are frequently distinguished by competent but ordinary technique.
