Portland Arts Festival
120 artists present their work in tented booths in the South Park Blocks, 10 am-8 pm Friday-Saturday, 11 am-6 pm Sunday, June 19-21. Free.

Art in the Pearl
Source Book, a respected reference in the art world, rated last year's debut of Art in the Pearl No. 68 out of 300 similar events. In the event's second year, Art in the Pearl will increase the number of artist's booths to 120, showing painting, prints, ceramics, jewelry, furniture and metalwork. In the Education Pavilion, the Portland Art Museum and Art Media will create an Egyptian theme day. Other plans include a "clay day" sponsored by the Oregon Potters Association. Food, music and a beer garden complement the Pearl District's growing number of restaurants, venues and bars.

North Park Blocks between West Burnside Street and 8th Avenue, 281-8750. 10 am-6 pm Saturday-Monday, Sept. 5-7. Free.

Art as Entertainment
The Rose Festival Association adds the first Portland Arts Festival to its list of June events--and not everyone is happy about it.

BY KATE BONANSINGA

The Rose Festival Association seems to consume Portland during the month of June. It hosts the Festival Fun Center at Waterfront Park and descends upon Portland International Raceway with the CART Races, the largest sporting event in Oregon and one of the few races of its kind in the country. The association is responsible for our annual hometown parade and, in conjunction, appoints a committee of seven community members to crown a female high-school senior as "queen," thereby defining youthful intelligence and promise. All of this, and now it's hosting the first Portland Arts Festival.

"Portland is first and foremost a community vibrant in the visual arts and culture," says Jill Whittaker, chairwoman of the Portland Arts Festival. "A free, outdoor arts festival is the missing link, and the Rose Festival is good at outdoor events."

An estimated 120 artists from across the country will show their work in tented booths June 19-21 in the South Park Blocks. Several of the artists were invited to participate, and 300 others sent slides to be juried by Arvie Smith (artist and instructor at the Pacific Northwest College of Art), Brian Wallace (curator at the Bellevue Art Museum in Bellevue, Wash.) and Kenneth R. Trapp (curator at the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.). These men selected an eclectic mixture of work: mixed media, ceramics, drawing/pastels, fiber, glass, graphics/printmaking, jewelry, metalworks, painting/oil, painting/water, photography, sculpture and wood.

"We began researching the event in 1996, when we were feeling the void that Artquake left," says Ligaya Pierson, special events manager of the Portland Rose Festival Association. "We used the mailing list from the Art Fair Source Book, which lists 500 art festivals and the participating artists. We also asked the galleries."

But gallery owners have varying opinions about the upcoming event, and most of them are less than enthusiastic.

The divisiveness about the Portland Arts Festival seems to stem from differing opinions about the definition of art and the contribution that art makes to contemporary society. Supporters of the festival contend that art should be accessible. Most gallery owners, on the other hand, respect art that challenges the status quo: They tend to look for progressiveness rather than accessibility.

Gallery owner Elizabeth Leach explains that when she and the other members of the First Thursday group were approached about the project last spring, she had just returned from the International Art Show in Chicago, "a very high-caliber fine art exposition."

"I was appalled by the idea [of the festival]," Leach says, "because I have been working so hard to take art in Portland a step forward. An arts and crafts show is one thing, but this is painting and sculpture that they're talking about, and they don't seem to intend to provide any context for the art's meaning and quality. This defeats the purpose of what the galleries are doing."

Beth Sorensen, director of public relations and marketing at the Portland Art Museum, disagrees. "It can't hurt to have so many arts appreciators in our front yard," she says. The museum's contribution to the festival is the "Imagination Station," a tent in which festivalgoers can participate in hands-on activities focusing on Egyptian hieroglyphics and mummification.

"For an outdoor arts festival, it's all positive, exciting and healthy," says Margo Jacobsen of the Margo Jacobsen Gallery. "It helps to educate people who don't necessarily go into galleries. The work may not be cutting-edge, but most of it is well done, particularly the crafts."

Organizers of the Portland Arts Festival used the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Colorado as a model and hired Bill Charney, its founder and former president, as an adviser. Peggy Cochran, one of the Portland artists selected by the jury to participate in the festival, says she is confident that Cherry Creek sets a good example. The nationally known three-day event grossed $3.2 million last year.

"I had very low expectations when I first heard about it," Cochran says. "But then I heard from another artist that the promoters have an excellent reputation. I'm confident that the quality of the crafts will be high because of Cherry Creek's precedent. The first time, these shows aren't usually that great in terms of sales, and then later more people catch on. I'm doing it more for future sales." There's also the $10,000 in awards to consider.

Cochran creates well-crafted, high-end, one-of-a-kind and limited-production jewelry, the type of work that Charles Froelick of Froelick Adelhart Gallery probably has in mind when he says, "I'd be very happy to see a high-quality craft fair."

In addition to its current appeal, the festival also seems to have potential. "I find the prospect of the temporary, site-specific outdoor sculpture that they're planning for the 1999 fair very exciting," says Froelick.

The committee planning the 1999 outdoor sculpture project, called "Monumental Ideas," consists of Donna Milrany, former executive director of Portland Center for the Visual Arts; Gary Reddick, an artist and architect; and Leach, who says the sculpture project is "about the future and vision of Portland."

But don't confuse that project with the sculpture exhibition that will be on view across from the Portland Art Museum during this year's festival. The latter will include sculptures by First Thursday gallery artists including Mick Newham of Quartersaw, Frank Boyden of Laura Russo, Erin Long of Froelick Adelhart, Greg Conyne of Blackfish, Mike Taylor of Pulliam Deffenbaugh and Lee Imonen of Margo Jacobsen.

Some serious and proficient ceramicists and metalsmiths are also participating in the festival; among them are Patty Maly, who renders figures and plant life on earthenware vessels, and Greg Wilbur, who hand-hammers metal into organic forms.

Also promising is the traditional arts component of the festival. The Oregon Folklife Program at the Oregon History Center is sponsoring demonstrations by artists including Bertha Yap (on Hawaiian feather lei making) and Daniela Mahoney (on Czech egg decorating).

But the centerpiece of the festival is Denny Dent, who paints with three brushes in each hand in his "Two-Fisted Art Attack." Within minutes, Dent executes 6-foot-high portraits of well-known figures such as Jimi Hendrix, President Clinton, Bill Gates and John Lennon, as onlookers cheer.

Considering Dent's popular appeal, and the proven strengths of the festival's organizer, the event--at least this year--will probably dwell more comfortably in the arena of parades, carnivals, sporting events and entertaining summertime fun than in the arena of art galleries and well-considered avant-garde art.