With the fifth annual Atlanta Arts Festival blanketing Piedmont Park’s winding trails, the arts are overflowing this weekend.
Paintings, photographs, blown glass, sculptures and much more are on display.
And it’s not only for looking and buying, but also experiencing. Co-founders Julie and Tracy Tepp place a special emphasis on stations for adults — and children — so festivalgoers can dip their hands in paint, learn how to dye paper, and get a chance to turn recycled material into works of art.
The Tepps are not artists themselves. For eight years, Julie Tepp was the event manager for the Dogwood Festival. In 2006, she stepped down when she and Tracy started a family, and she planned to be a full-time stay-at-home mom.
But within a few months, Julie wanted back into arts festival planning again. She turned to her husband to create their own.
The Tepps, who live in Mableton, believe their festival must help people develop an affinity for the arts, as well as a desire to support the arts.
Getting people jazzed about the arts is far from a given. From school funding cuts to people simply not being able to buy a painting or go to a live performance, the recession is making it difficult for the arts to thrive.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently got up with Tracy Tepp by phone to talk about the festival under way this weekend and the state of the arts in Georgia.
Q: What do you think of the state of the arts in Georgia?
A: Arts funding is constantly being cut, and they are cutting art classes and school, along with music. It’s alarming because statistics show that students who participate in arts programs have better grades and better SAT scores. They are more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, win awards for writing an essay or poem. It’s going to take a push from outside organizations to keep the arts going. That’s why we are hoping to forge partnerships so we aren’t just big in the arts for one month a year and no one hears about us the other 11 months. We want to work with artists to get them into galleries and get them showing throughout the year.
I think people need to be more vocal. If enough people tell their [elected] representatives that art is important, they will hear the message.
Q: How are artists doing in this struggling economy? Are they making it work or having to give it up?
A: The economy is still really down, and the arts are not seen as essential. If you are having to decide between paying the mortgage and buying a piece of art, you are going to pay the mortgage. About half of our artists are out of state and we are seeing a drop-off in the artists who are traveling to the show.
I have had to go back to work myself. When I got laid off about two years after working in information technology, I was hoping the festival would sustain us. I thought I could grow the business, but I had to go back to work. But I am not complaining. I am lucky to go back to work.
Q: How has your perspective changed about the arts since organizing the festivals?
A: I have a whole new appreciation for what it takes for an artist to make a living and how much pride they have in their work and how they work to make a living. A lot of people might think they are in the studio knocking out these pieces of art, but some of these guys work weeks on one piece.
Q: How much money can artists make this weekend at the festival?
A: There are reports done on this and we do anonymous surveys. We’ll hear from a few artists who say they didn’t sell a thing and a few who say they made $12,000 or $13,000. But most, on average, make between $3,000 and $5,000 during the festival. We’ve seen this slip a little bit last year and we are hoping things are better this year.
Q: What is the process of being in the festival?
A: We post our application in January and we close it in April. We get between 600 and 700 applications. We have a panel of six jurors. They rank them and we pick the top 200. We tell the jurors to look for artwork that is original and unique. The work has to be done by an artist. We don’t allow anything commercial or built using a kit or anything like that. The cost to have a standard booth is $300.
Q: How is your festival different from other arts festivals?
A: We’ve really tried to expand our hands-on experiences. We have Lil’ Artist Ally for the kids to enjoy hands-on activities. There will be arts and crafts, creating yarn dolls, decorating picture frames, creating wood mosaics, and creating flowers from tissue paper and many other activities.
And there’s a creation station geared more for adults that will include a demo on encaustic photography and one that will show a technique for marbling paper using shaving cream and watercolors.
In some ways, we are just like the other arts festivals.
We try to really keep our mission in supporting the arts. We don’t want to turn into a carnival. We’ve had people approach us about mechanical bulls and petting zoos, and I have young kids and know they would like the petting zoo, but we don’t want to distract from our core theme.
Q: What is your favorite piece of art around Atlanta?
A: I am more geared to the fine arts. I like the more physical, 3-D sculptures. Like the piece in front of the High Museum. Those different shapes of metal. It reminds me of a mobile or a wind chime. It always looks like it should move around when the wind blows.
Sunday conversation is edited for clarity and length.
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