The Campus Corner Association will host its first Arts on the Corner festival May 7, with the intention of creating an annual event for all ages.
The arts festival will include visual art tents and performing arts stages along Buchanan Avenue. The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art will also have a booth set up with visual art activities for visitors of all ages to create whatever their hearts desire.
According to Erin Patton, executive director of the Campus Corner Association, the Arts on the Corner event started as a way to fill a void left by the absence of the Dustbowl Arts Market, an arts fair with local artists and vendors, since 2013.
"We put together this event to help fill that void and provide the community with another arts festival in our unique district area," Patton said.
The Campus Corner Association will open up the streets for performances by acoustic musicians to play around Campus Corner throughout the festival.
This year, there will be 10 different art vendors set up on the street selling their work and 12 performing artists ranging from dancers to indie musicians.
Performing artists will include Bet U Can Move Like This Amateur Youth and Adult Dance Troupe and Oklahoma City indie-folk artist Stephen Salewon, Patton said.
"We'll have almost 300 pieces of work from Norman Public Schools' and Washington Public Schools' elementary and middle school students in all different mediums," Patton said.
Not only can visitors buy art and watch performances, they can also create their own work.
"In the festival area for the kids, we'll have chalk art, face painting, and around the festival area there will also be acoustic musicians set up on the sidewalk playing," Patton said.
Parking will not be an issue, as the Campus Corner Association partnered with surrounding churches to provide 600 free parking spaces, Patton said.
There will also be VIP parking for bike riders on Buchanan Avenue.
The event is free and open to the public to benefit the Norman Public Schools' art foundation, Patton said.
"We're purchasing art carts for them, and we're hoping to get at least three. If we could get four that would be great, but they're about $800 apiece," Patton said. "They're utility carts that art teachers can push into a classroom and teach an art lesson for the day, and it has everything they need to teach the lesson."
