Photo by David N. Seelig 

The little festival that could

Ketchum Arts Festival
celebrates valley talent

By Jennifer Pattison

One desolate day, in the heat of the last summer of the 20th century, the locals were kicked out of the cool green pastures of Sun Valley and onto the dusty streets of downtown Ketchum.

So began the tale of the birth of a new tradition; the Ketchum Arts Festival—the valley’s other arts and crafts show.

Created from what was essentially a Salon de Refusé, the origins of KAF are mired in artistic controversy.

“We started seven years ago, when we were no longer invited, quite abruptly, to be in the Sun Valley Arts & Crafts Festival,” explained Christina Healy, a KAF board member and local jewelry designer.

The Sun Valley show had been a large part of the income for many local artists. In 1998 when the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, which produces the show, decided to go in a “new direction,” many local artists were left stranded. “It was a very abrupt decision and a lot of artists did not survive that summer. I know I barely survived, and I was well established,” said Healy.

“The Sun Valley show was about a quarter of the money I would earn throughout the year,” explained John Caccia, local bolosmith, gallery owner and KAF board member. “You really become dependent upon it, and all of a sudden it was gone.”

What prompted the Center to “uninvite” the local artists?

“It wasn’t that the local artists were ‘uninvited,’” said Jennifer Gately, the Sun Valley festival director for the past three years. “Word got out around the nation that this was an amazing place to be … and the artists that are professionals on the national festival circuit found out about us and started to apply … so there was a big change in the quality of work that was presented.”

The Center also changed its criteria. “The goal (of the Sun Valley show) was to continue to provide our community with the highest quality of work possible. As part of that, the jury process became less of a pat on the back process and more about the work itself,” Gately added.

The Sun Valley show had simply grown to a point where organizers were no longer able to put the local artists first. “It’s sad, to an extent, but we have to maintain our integrity and not do favors for people, have it be an even playing field for everyone,” Gately said.

Whatever the reasons behind the change, the local artists had to adapt. And adapt they did. With barely a handful of them exhibiting their work in the Sun Valley show, a decision was made to find another avenue through which to showcase their craft.

Local businesswoman Janet Dunbar and Sara Berquist, a local jewelry artist, originated the idea of a Ketchum-based arts and crafts festival. Dunbar’s daughter, ceramist Elizabeth Pohle, was one of the artists no longer in the Sun Valley show. “She had been in it for the three years previous to the year that they didn’t take anybody local,” explained Dunbar. “Suddenly people that had been in their show for years weren’t good enough! That really upset me.”

Instead of listening to the disgruntled artists whine, however, Dunbar decided to do something about it. “I had a vacant piece of property next door to mine and maybe 12 of us got together and decided to do our own festival.”

In fact, 16 local artists rallied around Dunbar and produced a show in what was essentially her front yard, on the corner of Fourth Street and East Avenue. The Ketchum Arts Festival debuted in 1999, on the very same weekend as the Sun Valley show.

Six years later and KAF is still going strong, although it now takes place in July rather than August—when the Sun Valley show is held.

“This local show has been so dynamite,” said Gately, “and it just keeps getting better.”

“The first year it was just a handful of artists that were all taking a risk,” explained Caccia. “Now it’s starting to gain the respect of the more well-known, full-time artists in the community, among them are Steve Snyder, Russ Lamb and Debbie Edgar Sturges (herself a Sun Valley Arts & Crafts Festival Best in Show winner). That brings up the quality of the show, so now it’s not just some artists that might have been disgruntled, now it’s really become a top quality show.”

The Wood River Valley artistic community has actively embraced the KAF. “Personally, I am thrilled there is a venue for local artists to show their work,” commented E.J. Harpham, ceramist and KAF Steering Committee secretary. “It is ‘our’ show and to be able to shape it, watch it grow, yet change when necessary, is fun to see.”

No matter how much they grow, however, they are determined not to abandon their roots. KAF is run according to a well-defined mission statement, the essence of which states that their aim is to “create a ‘festival’ that will feature as many local artists as possible.”

There is as strong an emphasis placed upon the word “festival” as there is on “local.” “We didn’t want it to be just a show. We also wanted it to be a celebration. It’s not just the local visual artists,” Caccia explained. Each year the participation of local bands—including the 812 band and Slow Children Playing—theater groups and community services, such as the Animal Shelter, as well as fabulous booths featuring the delights of local eateries has grown in leaps and bounds. “It’s a celebration of the community, a festival of appreciation that the artists put on for everybody to enjoy.”

Success, however, has not been a walk in the park, quite literally. For the past five years the show has been staged in July on various streets in downtown Ketchum. “The first two years temperatures were above 100 degrees and people were melting. The pavement was melting,” Caccia said.

“It was horrible!” clamored Healy. “I got heat sickness! My lips swelled up, my eyes swelled up, it was very hard.” The artists realized that they desperately needed grass. “We were constantly looking for a park, but there is no central park in Ketchum with traffic flow.”

Now, for its sixth festival (seventh if you count Dunbar’s inaugural front lawn gathering), which takes place on July 8, 9 and 10, the KAF has secured some superb grass. The city of Sun Valley has allowed them to use the newly created Festival Meadow on Sun Valley Road.

This change of venue, however, has been a further source of controversy for the very democratic festival.

“We took the vote to the artists: Who wants to stay downtown and who wants to move to the meadow?” explained Caccia. The decision was by no means unanimous.

Dunbar was one of those strongly against relocating. “I’m worried we’ll lose the spirit that we have in the town,” she warned. “I know what happens when you move the venue of the business, you lose so much ground. Hopefully they can admit they’ve made a mistake and come back into town next year!”

So, the only cloud remaining on KAF’s shiny horizon is its future.

As popular as the show is, the organizers could well find themselves in the same situation the Sun Valley show did all those years ago.

“It will be interesting,” offered Gately. “They’ve already, I think, encountered some of the problems that we have as a presenting organization and may or may not have more sympathy about how we go about doing things!”

But Caccia is adamant: “We have ensured that there will always be a venue for local artists to show their art. They can never be juried out.”

And in an attempt not to follow in their predecessor’s footsteps, KAF organizers have set out very loose guidelines for participation. As Caccia put it: “We use ‘locals’ as an ambiguously creative definition, part-time locals, people that have worked here, have family here, a tie to the community. We’re not trying to be exclusive; we’re just trying to maintain a venue that assures that all ‘local’ artists have a venue. If we have room for them, they’re in.” •