The annual Paint Dexter Plein Air Festival is to be held from August 10-15 in downtown Dexter, marking a 14 year anniversary of celebrating art and artists from around the Dexter community. Featuring workshops for children and adults, art competitions and open art exhibitions, the festival is dedicated to sharing the joy of art for all ages and levels of expertise. Each year, over 70 artists are hosted and hundreds of art pieces are sold.
“The festival started as a fundraising opportunity for the Dexter Arts, Culture, and Heritage Committee so that they could take money made from the festival and reinvest it back into the arts,” festival coordinator Josh Tanghe said. “We’re currently looking at actually using a little of that funding this year to do a historical heritage piece downtown. But nonetheless, it is a visual improvement in our downtown area.”
The Dexter Arts, Culture, and Heritage organizing committee anticipates that live-painting sessions will take place throughout the community from August 10-13, key events including an artist reception on August 11 and youth workshops for all grade levels on August 12.
Youth specific workshops can be broken down into three age groups: elementary, middle, and high school. Introductory workshops include instruction from an instructor to gain simple experience with basic art tools like brushes and colors, refreshments provided. Middle and high school workshops incorporate outdoor painting and delve into the unique aspects of such a style of art.
Adult workshops are held prior to the festival itself, in which participants spend the weekend before learning from the Awarding Judge. The festival will conclude with art sales and live musical performances on the 14-15.
“I think it’s just a great opportunity to be able to kind of give a little extra to the community to provide a nice little festival and an opportunity for artists to come out,” Tanghe said. “One of the really cool things about our festival is we have a category for more amateur artists during competitions, and we’ve been able to see a lot of those emerging artists go to the professional category. It’s really cool to see year over year the festival grow underneath my tutelage.”
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In addition to workshops and art exhibitions, attendees have the chance to compete by entering their own works into the Plein Air Competition or by participating in the “Quick Draw” competition, both of which have no baseline for skill level, as participants can choose which bracket to be placed in. These competitions can be registered for by visiting the festival’s website.
Attendees will be able to observe featured artists creating original works live along local downtown streets, featuring the “Quick Draw” competition in which artists gather in the downtown and park area to complete a piece within a three-hour window. Beginning Friday at 2 pm, finished pieces will be available for purchase at the Tent Gallery, offering patrons a chance to take home a piece of the festival.
“I think it’s just a great way for artistic expression throughout the community,” Tanghe said. “We have a lot of local artists, and just being outside of Ann Arbor, we have a lot of people that come in from that local area who do our festival too. So it’s just a nice event to bring a lot of those artistic individuals together and have a nice week of painting.”
