Art detour takes right turn
Nadiia Petryk
The Annual Phoenix Art Detour can be officially called one of the biggest art events of the Valley, and this year it celebrated its 20th anniversary. As usual, the event took place in downtown Phoenix, and was going on the whole first weekend of March.
The amount of people that came for the Art Detour was much more than downtown Phoenix has hosted in months.
Galleries, multiple stages with live bands, and an enormous number of street vendors with handcrafted jewelry, clothes, toys, embroidery and much more were there for visitors until late night.
Some of the visitors were trying to add some spice to the event by wearing costumes or walking down the streets on stilts.
One of the most creative participants was Ronnie Strang, a DJ, who set up his sound system. in a tree, and was a real unique addition to the Art Detour.
Another very unique attraction was the wooden sculpture of a Phoenix bird that was lit on fire Saturday at midnight.
Also, there are many different opinions if it’s a good or bad thing for the Phoenix Art Detour to have street vendors.
Michelle Dittrich, a street vendor that was selling handcrafted toys, made out of socks and looking like cute little zombies, thinks that street vendors are a necessary part of
the Art Detour.
“I feel if it wasn’t for all of the vendors and everybody else like street performers, the galleries would never get so much business,” said Dittrich.
The opinions of the owners of the galleries or artists whose pieces were presented in galleries were very different.
Michael David Little is an artist who presents his work at the Art One gallery.
This year was his eighth time taking part at the Art Detour.
He feels that the City Of Phoenix decision about possibly restricting street vendors is a positive thing.
“I like it, because I think it is a misrepresentation of a lot of the artists that have been striving down here for a long time and trying to turn this into the art community that it is. And then we have these vendors that come popping from nowhere and they treat it like it’s the Renaissance Fair,” Little said.
For Kimber Lanning, the owner of the Modified Gallery, this year was her ninth time participating in the Phoenix Art Detour. Her only concern was the safety issue.
“It’s really not about galleries verses the vendors, it’s about trying to find a good solution, to help them find the way to spread the event out over a larger area, so they are not all condensed here,” Lanning said.
Only next year’s event will be able to really show if the City of Phoenix made the right decision.
No matter what happens though, true art lovers can still have a great time at Phoenix Art Detour.
