Erica Monroe Kane stops by the Friday 8 O’Clock Buzz to talk about MMoCA’s 45th Annual Holiday Art Fair.The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art will celebrate forty-five years of the Holiday Art Fair, taking place November 20 to 22, 2015.
Shoppers will be delighted by the new and returning artists, performers, makers of fine craft, and purveyors of epicurean delights. Modern, elegant clay vessels from Eshelman Pottery; freshly baked baklava from the Philoptochos Society; performances by the VSA Choir and Midwest Performing Arts; and fragrant, hand-tied wreathes from Fresh Evergreens are just a sampling of how the art fair helps to ring in the holiday season.
Holiday Art Fair presents shoppers with a unique occasion to enjoy holiday shopping by purchasing beautiful gifts, indulging themselves, and contributing to a valued community arts organization. This event is a signature fundraiser for the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, supporting the museum’s free exhibitions and education programs year-round. Holiday Art Fair is also a driver of the local economy, drawing people to downtown Madison for shopping and dining, while providing a marketplace for local artists.
EVENT DETAILS
Hours and Admission
Friday, November 20 ∙ 2:30–7 pm
Saturday, November 21 ∙ 10 am–5 pm
Sunday, November 22 ∙ 10 am–3 pm
Admission to the fair is $6; children under 12 are free.
Artists: the Heart of the Fair
To ensure a range of high quality art and craft, artists selected for the 2015 Holiday Art Fair were jury-chosen from nearly 200 applicants. Among the works available to shoppers are jewelry, clothing and accessories, sculpture, paintings, prints, photographs, and fine craft objects. Participating artists demonstrate sophisticated skill across a variety of media.
Collaborators Sundie and Brad Ruppert create 2D works from reclaimed scraps of cowboy hat felt cut into 1,000s of pieces that are individually nailed to wood bases.
Ceramist Paul Eshelman’s vessels reflect a precise, orderly, geometric sensibility. In his work the materiality of clay and glaze are emphasized by the lack of applied surface decoration and ornamentation.
Radim Schreiber, a photographer native to the Czech Republic, has a focus on fireflies and uses only standard photography techniques to expertly capture their bioluminescent glow in low-light, natural environments.
Painter Charlotte Fung Miller studied formal Chinese calligraphy for nine years and Chinese brush painting for seven years under Master Lui-Sang Wong of San Francisco, and will present exquisite works on hand-made rice paper.
Fourteen jewelers, including Wisconsin-based artist Dagmara Costello, will offer a wide variety of handmade works comprised of such materials as silver, gold, rubber, glass, exotic woods, and more.
Art and craft lovers can also preview works by all of the participating artists and create their own must-have lists in advance of the fair at mmoca.org, under Holiday Art Fair.