Wearable art
Clothing and jewelry dress up Three Rivers Arts Festival
The artist market is as synonymous with the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival as free concerts and oversized cups of freshly squeezed lemonade. It’s also a treasure trove for fashionable and inventive items that may be overlooked among the artwork.
Artist markets like this are not unique to Pittsburgh. In New York and other large cities, they seem to pop up almost every weekend in the summer. But they sometimes seem overloaded with pashminas, sparkly hair clips and little else.
At the Three Rivers Arts Festival, the artisans who display their creations in Point State Park and Gateway Center are selected through an application process that attracts makers from across the country. The 10-day festival, which ends Sunday, includes more than 300 independent artisans this year. Wearable art (clothing and jewelry) has long been a cornerstone of the market. To me, a good artist market has about 25 percent to do with quantity and the rest to do with quality. Of course, it’s important that people are buying the stuff. (If not, what’s the point?) Another factor to consider is whether I discover something new.
The artist market at the Three Rivers Arts Festival checked all the boxes, in my sartorial opinion. The variety of artisans, as well as how far they traveled to be part of it, is impressive. Ornate copper designs by Sergio Barcena (Michigan), conversation-starting accessories made from nuts and bolts by David Conroy (Maryland), eclectic one-of-a-kind jewelry by Vintage Vamp (Ohio), and leather bags with architectural cut-out designs by father-andson team Horace and Shawn Thomas (Texas) were a few of my favorites earlier in the week. It also was nice to see lots of regional artists, including Naked Geometry, garbella, Skelton Jewelry, Ajwcreations, Frost Finery and Diane Wilson porcelain jewelry.
If you go, take the time to chat with the makers. That’s how you learn that a bracelet or a handbag is really a labor of love. It’s also special if you get to catch artisans at work in their booths.
One highlight this year is the introduction of the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh festival support grant, a program of the Pittsburgh Foundation and Heinz Endowments. Espoire D’Afrique of Monroeville, a grant recipient, brought a taste of Africa with clothing done in rich prints and some beaded bangles and sandals.
Some ideas for the future: Because it costs an average of $345-$410 to have a booth, according to trustarts.org/TRAF, it would be interesting to see an incubator or style collective of sorts. Think a larger tent filled with the work of many designers, perhaps focused on up-and-coming ones from the region (or beyond) picked through an application process. These sorts of designer collectives are the future of brick-and-mortar retail because they maximize exposure and minimize overhead for independent designers. Why not give it a try at the festival?