MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival Recognized as One of Nation’s ”Top 10 Fine Art & Craft Shows” by the Harris List
14 Feb 2005
by: Laura Squires
Festival Remains Top Arts and Crafts Show in Texas
FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 14, 2005 – A second closely watched monitor of the art-show circuit has named MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival one of its “Top 10 Fine Art & Craft Shows.”
The Harris List, an annual directory of arts and crafts festivals compiled by Dr. Larry Harris, a Colorado-based consultant, has revealed that MAIN ST. placed eighth among the more than 120 events it surveyed for its 2005 update. Published since 1977, The Harris List bases its rankings on artist surveys, as well as on objective measurements of each show’s sales-per-artisan, the quality of its artisans and its treatment of artisans. For more information on The Harris List, visit www.HarrisList.com.
The Harris List’s announcement followed by several days MAIN ST.’s debut at #8 in the latest national rankings from Art Fair SourceBook, another respected industry arbiter. The festival, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary, also retained the distinction of being the top event in Texas, according to The Harris List. MAIN ST. runs April 7-10 in downtown Fort Worth and, as usual, carries no admission charge.
“Downtown Fort Worth, Inc., which organizes MAIN ST., and the event’s corporate sponsors are to be commended for providing artists and craftsmen with such a wonderful venue every spring for displaying and selling their work,” said Dr. Harris. “This was the best showing ever for this festival.”
“It’s remarkable that, working independently, two acknowledged experts on American arts and crafts festivals have within a few days of each other arrived at the same conclusion with regard to MAIN ST. ‒ that it is almost without peer as a showplace for the work of the nation’s best artists and artisans,” said Kari L. Brantley, MAIN ST.’s artist coordinator. “These rankings speak to the uniform excellence of that work, across more than a dozen different categories, and to the support its creators receive from the thousands of individual collectors and other buyers who attend the festival each year.”
The festival is staged along a nine-block stretch of downtown Fort Worth’s historic Main Street, from the Tarrant County Courthouse to the Fort Worth Convention Center. In addition to the work of 200 painters, sculptors, photographers and other artists and artisans, this year’s MAIN ST. will include performances by nearly 300 musicians and other entertainers including a number of Grammy Award-winners. Some 460,000 people are expected to attend.
About MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival
MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival, presented by Coors Light, is produced by Downtown Fort Worth, Inc., and supported by Bank of America, Target, Sundance Square, American Airlines, NBC5 and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. MAIN ST. has consistently been rated as one of the finest arts events in the country, and showcases a nationally recognized fine art and fine craft juried art fair, live concerts, performance artists and street performers on the historic bricks of downtown Fort Worth. For more information about MAIN ST., visit www.mainstreetartsfest.org.