Paul Hyde

phyde@greenvillenews.com

It's Artisphere's 10th birthday — and that calls for a big party.

Downtown Greenville's visual arts festival, Friday through Sunday, will be larger and include more new features than ever before.

"We've gone to great lengths to make it a real celebration," said Artisphere executive director Kerry Murphy. "We looked at every little bit of the festival and asked ourselves, 'How can we enhance it, do it better, make it more appealing?' There was no element that hasn't gotten a tweak."

Among the new features:

• A record number of artists will be participating this year.

• An "Artisphere After Hours" will feature free concerts on Friday and Saturday after the artist booths have closed for the night.

• A Clemson University exhibit will explore the nexus of art and technology.

• The Culinary Arts Cafe will feature food by 10 local restaurants — also more than ever before.

• Craft beer, meanwhile, will be added to Artisphere's popular wine-tasting attraction.

• A new permanent sculpture by acclaimed Upstate artist John Acorn will be dedicated downtown as a part of the festival.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the outdoor festival to enjoy the art, food, music, street performers and activities for children.

The festival carries an estimated $5.5 million economic impact for Greenville over three days.

Artisphere, sponsored by TD Bank, continues to grow in national prestige as well. It was once again rated in the Top 10 of arts festivals nationwide by Greg Lawler's influential "Art Fair Sourcebook."

"We've now been named a Top 10 festival in the country for two years running," Murphy said.

At the heart of the event are the 125 artists from around the nation who were selected through a highly competitive process from among a record 934 applicants.

The featured artists work in a variety of media — from painting to woodwork, ceramics, sculpture, photography, glass and jewelry.

The artist roster includes 15 local artists, the most in the history of the event.

Greenville artist Katie Walker will be taking part in Artisphere for the first time. Her abstract canvases, as much as 20 feet in length, had been too large for an Artisphere booth. In recent years, however, she has created some smaller works in acrylic that are perfect for the festival.

"I'm very excited," said Walker, who has taught art at Furman University, Greenville Tech and the Greenville County Museum of Art. "My work in the past just didn't seem to lend itself to festivals. But this may inspire me to do more festivals."

Walker, who has worked out of Greenville's Art Bomb studios for more than a dozen years, applied for — and won — one of Artisphere's Emerging Artist scholarships, which waives booth fees for two local artists.

Walker said one of the benefits of Artisphere is the opportunity to build relationships with future patrons.

"I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of people, passing out information and talking to people about what I do," Walker said.

Bands, STEAMand beer

For the first time, Artisphere will present free outdoor concerts after the visual art booths close at 8 p.m. "Artisphere After Hours" will feature performances by Houndmouth and Blitzen Trapper at the Peace Center amphitheater on Friday and Saturday night.

Clemson's new STEAM exhibit, meanwhile, will offer interactive experiences, as the acronym implies, in science, technology, engineering, art and math. Inside the Clemson tent on Main Street near Broad Street, Clemson students will create a concept car and demonstrate how digital effects are produced for film and TV — among other activities.

"The general idea is to combine technology with art," Murphy said. "We're always looking for opportunities to enhance the patron experience, and this was a real innovative way to do that."

Artisphere's patrons who enjoy the event's popular wine-tasting feature, which takes place throughout the festival, will now get to sample craft beer as well. A $10 ticket buy six tastes, either of beer or wine.

The expanded Culinary Arts Cafe, meanwhile, will include food vendors from local restaurants such as Barleys, Grill Marks, Larkin's on the River, Mimi's Steakhouse of Japan, Roost and Papi's Tacos.

For the third time since it began a decade ago, Artisphere commissioned a permanent sculpture to be placed in downtown Greenville. John Acorn's "Ten Artispheres" will be dedicated at noon Friday on Main Street near High Cotton.

"It's really an incredible piece," Murphy said. "It's always been part of Artisphere's intent to add public art to the downtown area. It'll be a real enhancement to downtown."

An array of 10th anniversary commemorative items will be offered at the festival. The commemorative T-shirts will be screen-printed for patrons at the festival.

Patrons will see not only large additions to Artisphere but small enhancements as well, Murphy said. Furman art students will join with professionals, for instance, to re-create all of Artisphere's commemorative posters as street murals. In addition, the Culinary Arts Cafe will benefit from a new design.

"People will really appreciate the entire festival atmosphere," Murphy said.

Returning this year will be a juried exhibition called Artists of the Upstate in the Founder's Room above Larkin's on the River. It will showcase 77 works by Upstate artists throughout the festival.

The Metropolitan Arts Council will present "One-Stop Open Studios" during Artisphere at its location, 16 Augusta St., in the West End. The exhibition highlights local artists who participate in Open Studios, the annual self-guided tour of local artists' work spaces in the fall.

The Kidsphere section of Artisphere will offer activities for children, including basket-weaving, creating paper lanterns, painting watercolor masks, building splatter sculptures and decorating ceramic tiles.

The popular visual performing artist Brian Olsen, meanwhile, will present 12 of his high-octane painting demonstrations in Falls Park.

Milestones

In its 10th year, Artisphere is celebrating several milestones.

In addition to being named a Top 10 festival and receiving a record number of applications, Artisphere is seeing record sales by artists. Last year's participating artists earned an average of $6,200 over the three-day event. That was up from $5,865 the previous year.

Strong sales and Greenville's reputation for hospitality encourage talented artists nationwide to apply for Artisphere, Murphy said.

The large number of applicants allows Artisphere to be highly selective in terms of both the talent and diversity of participating artists.

Murphy said Artisphere's popularity and growing prestige can be attributed to careful planning and forethought by the early organizers of the festival.

"The founding members of the Artisphere board of directors had aspirations of making it a world-class event, so I don't think that anyone is surprised that we're still here after 10 years and more successful than ever," Murphy said.

All events are listed on the Artisphere website (www.artisphere.us), and full-color brochures will be available at the event as well.

For the latest in local arts news and reviews, follow Paul Hyde on Facebook and Twitter: @PaulHyde7.

YOU CAN GO

What: Artisphere

When: Friday, noon to 8 p.m. (After Hours concerts run to 9:45 p.m.); Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (After Hours concerts run to 9:45 p.m.); Sunday, May 11, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Where: Main Street from Court to Augusta

Admission: Free

Learn more: www.artisphere.us