Weather can’t stop art
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor cold ... Mosaic Festival goes well
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Members of the Clinton Blaze Color Guard perform for the crowd during last Saturday’s Mosaic Art Festival on Market Street as a crowd looks on. This performance was able to avoid the periodic rain. - G. Chambers Williams III
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Peyton Martin, a student at Clinton Elementary School, shows his art work to his sister, Harper, and his mother, Arika, in the Clinton City Schools art tent during last Saturday’s Mosaic Art Festival on Market Street downtown. - G. Chambers Williams III
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Jeremiah Patton, 11, whose clown name is “Cookie,” gets a portrait drawn during Sat- urday’s Mosaic Art Festival in downtown Clinton. Watching is his brother Joe, 9, whose clown name is Dough-Dough. They are students at Dutch Valley Elementary School. - G. Chambers Williams III
With outside temperatures 20 degrees below normal, and rain falling down periodically much of the day, last Saturday’s Mosaic Art Festival on Market Street in Clinton drew a big crowd and was deemed a success.
“It went great,” said Katherine Birkbeck, program director for Historic Downtown Clinton, which organized the event. “It was possibly the craziest weather day it could have been. But it was about making memories, and we certainly did that on Saturday.”
Birkbeck said at least 1,000 people came out for the daylong event, and there were at least twice as many vendors as there were for last year’s festival.
“My hope is that a lot of the visitors were people who came to Clinton for the first time,” she said. “We believe our brick-and-mortar stores downtown did well, too.”
Considering the unpredictable weather last weekend, Birkbeck said the festival might be moved to the end of April next year to “be sure of better weather.”
Still, “Overall, we were very happy with it,” she said of the event and the turnout.
The festival began with a 10 a.m. performance by the Clinton High School Jazz Band, with other activities running until about 4 p.m.
That included performances, booths and displays by area schools, school art programs and local businesses, such as dancing, acting, interactive murals, projects for the kids and more.
Market Street businesses and some tents were used to display art from students in Clinton City and Anderson County schools.
Other events included performances by the CHS Choir, Dream Dance, the Clinton City Schools Percussion Ensemble and Ukulele Club, the CCS Color Guard, Wendy Gilhula pottery, Knoxville Children’s Theatre, and more.
The event also included art vendors, craft and artist demonstrations, a community macrame mural, and art projects for the kids.
Art was displayed inside of many of the downtown stores, including Hoskins in the Flat, where manager Mollie Farrar said there were many visitors who stopped in to look at the artwork.
On Thursday and Friday nights, Anderson County Schools hosted a large art show at the Kincaid House, featuring individual student art.
Clinton City Schools put up a large tent in the Hoskins Park on Market Street, featuring individual student art.