Print View

This year’s double payment came as a surprise to the Festival’s non-profit partners. “This is very important to us,” said Alice Valdez, director of MECA. “Our federal and foundation funding has gone down so much since 2009, the fact that the Bayou City Art Festival is able to give us more than we anticipated is just wonderful.”

Each year, the Festival’s non-profit partners provide hundreds of volunteers who aid in the Capital One Bank Creative Zone and other critical areas to help make it one of the most esteemed art events in the country. In return, the Art Colony Association, through sponsorship revenue and festival proceeds, is consistently able to provide them with critical funding.

“There’s no denying that this spring’s Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park was our most successful festival to-date,” said Mike Piana, new chairman of the board of the Art Colony Association. “Thanks to our generous sponsors and all the amazing patrons that came out in droves, by the end of the evening we will have distributed over $160,000 in total from the festival proceeds.”

2010 Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park non-profit partners receiving donations include: Art League Houston, Bering Omega, City ArtWorks, Downtown YMCA, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston Center for Photography, Lawndale Art Center, Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA), Memorial Park Conservancy, Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH), Museum of Cultural Arts Houston (MOCAH), Orange Show, Several Dancers Core, Spay & Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP), SPARK, and Texas Accountants & Lawyers for the Arts (TALA).

The 13^th Annual Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park was an undeniable success this year with record-breaking attendance of well over 30,000 visitors. The festival has been ranked as one of the “Top Ten” art festivals in the U.S. by readers of AmericanStyle Magazine for the past two years and includes attractions such as incredible artwork by 300 top galleried fine artists, multicultural music and dance, international food and wine, and interactive art stations at the Capital One Bank Creative Zone. This year’s festival featured new attractions such as the MOCAH Community Mural sponsored by Capital One Bank, the EZ Rider Pass, and the Art of Food where visitors could feast on cuisines from all around the globe.

The Bayou City Art Festivals draw top galleried fine artists from across the country to compete to win one of the limited 300 artist slots at both the Memorial Park and Downtown locations. The festival artists are selected by a panel of jurors comprised of local and regional artists, art collectors, and cultural ambassadors. Jury Selection for the upcoming Bayou City Art Festival Downtown will take place on Wednesday, May 19 at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

The Bayou City Art Festival has become recognized by artists across the country as one of the more profitable and well organized festivals to attend, and it shows in the increasing number of artist entries. For example, 851 artists applied to be the 2009 Downtown festival and this year, 1021 artists applied to be in the 2010 Downtown festival this October. The number of artist entries for each Memorial Park festival typically ranges from 1,100 to 1,200 (and growing!) each year.

Austin-based glass artist Eric Mort had this to say about the 2010 Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park: “As of now, my top three shows have all been Bayou City Art Festivals…the crowd flow was even better this year.”

Iowa-based photographer John Scanlan felt similarly: “This show continues to grow for me leaps and bounds and this year was no exception. I had my best Houston show ever. The orders even kept coming after the show.”