67th annual Sidewalk Art Festival set for this weekend in new location
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IDAHO FALLS — The Eagle Rock Art Guild is holding its annual Sidewalk Art Festival this weekend at Snake River Landing in Idaho Falls.
The festival is a free, family-friendly event featuring artists from across the west. The festival draws around 15,000 attendees every year and is a major event for the local art community. This year’s show offers food, fun and many, many art pieces available at various price ranges.
“This is our 67th year that this festival has been presented by the Eagle Rock Art Guild,” Art Guild president Deanna French told EastIdahNews.com. “We have artists coming from Utah, Oregon, Montana and all over Idaho. It’s all kinds of art, not just paintings. We have individuals who are doing glass art. We have jewelers. We have a lot of painting and drawing artists. We have metal sculpture, photography, wood and pottery.”
Not only can attendees browse through a litany of different artistic media and styles, but they can talk with the artists themselves. This makes the festival a great opportunity for aspiring artists of all ages to pick up some free art education.
After being held on the Idaho Falls Greenbelt Riverwalk in previous years, the Sidewalk Art Festival is moving to Snake River Landing this year. The new location offers some benefits to both the artists and the public.
“We’re going to be next to Pierview Drive,” said French. “We have two grassy areas that are flat, which is good for the artists to set up and for patrons of the arts and families to come in and look at the art. And it will be easier for people to find parking places because we have two parking lots adjacent to where we’re going to be. Snake River Landing is a really nice area to be in and the Snake River Landing people have been really nice to work with in helping us out.”
The Sidewalk Art Festival is the chief annual fundraiser for the Eagle Rock Art Guild. The nonprofit organization works to promote the arts in the community. French said the funds raised this year will go toward projects like procuring a permanent location.
“We do not have a building right now,” she said. “When we had a building, we used to give art lessons to children who were not able to pay for classes. We’re hoping we can get funds and we have some saved, but the price of everything went sky-high last year. So we’re looking for a building where we can teach art and have regular art shows.”
Eagle Rock Art Guild’s Sidewalk Art Festival is happening this Saturday and Sunday, July 23 and 24, at Snake River Landing in Idaho Falls. The show runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free.
For more information, visit Eagle Rock Guild on Facebook or at the group’s website.
