Good-bye, Christmas Hill Park. Hello, downtown Gilroy. For the
sake of both commerce and art, Gilroy’s third-annual Art
&
amp; Wine Festival will be held downtown this year for the first
time.
Gilroy – Good-bye, Christmas Hill Park. Hello, downtown Gilroy.
For the sake of both commerce and art, Gilroy’s third-annual Art & Wine Festival will be held downtown this year for the first time. Those organizing the gala hope the new location will attract more people and grow the event into a mini Garlic Festival of sorts.
It all starts with the dozens of food and crafts vendors and local wineries that will enliven the Fifth Street corridor off Monterey Street beginning Oct. 6. The Willey Cultural Center will serve as the festival’s “anchor” since all of the art will be in and around the refurbished historical home, according to Community Services Director Susan Andrade-Wax.
Along with the Downtown Business Association and the Visitor’s Bureau, Andrade-Wax is orchestrating the event, and she said she’s especially happy about the increased number of entries in the adult portion of the art show, which will also showcase children’s work.
“I’m excited about the art show. It will highlight the Willey House,” said Andrade-Wax, adding that there will be free arts and crafts activities for kids in the house’s courtyard.
As people make their way from the art exhibit, they will have their choice of tent food or local restaurants and cafes. Hence the commerce aspect of the event, said Visitor’s Bureau Director Jane Howard.
“Putting art and wine together will give people a real good experience of what Gilroy has to offer over and above garlic,” said Howard. There will be 11 local wineries at the festival, 10 to 12 food vendors, and 15 to 20 crafts vendors, according to Steve Ashford, a local builder and director of the business association who said he liked Howard’s PR blitz of radio, newspaper and Internet ads.
“Now that it’s downtown, we’re going to get a lot more people because they’ll see it driving down Monterey Street,” Ashford said. “We’ll see how it goes this year, but next year, we’re looking to make this really grow into a much bigger event.”
Artists make the event, and this year more than 100 as young as 5 will present their work. For the first time in 25 years, the Young Artists Show – with its hundreds of water colors and drawings – will join the 30-year-old Adult Art and Culture Exhibit, which has spent the last three years at Christmas Hill Park, where the Art and Wine Festival used to take place. This year the two events unite.
While admission is free for the public, artist entrance fees will subsidize eight $75 first-place prizes for the adults, whose work will also undergo evaluation by Mayor Al Pinheiro when he chooses the “Mayor’s Pick,” one of four special awards that four adult artists will receive.
Officials are expecting 100 to 125 young artists and about 65 adult artists, but the public’s attendance and the festival’s future remain to be seen.
