Lubeznik Center for the Arts' 34th Annual Lakefront Art Festival

Lubeznik Center for the Arts' 34th annual Lakefront Art Festival will be held on August 15 & 16, 2014, in Michigan City's beautiful Washington Park with nearly 100 exhibiting artists!

This year's event brings artists and craftspeople from across the country. Enjoy shopping for one-of-a-kind items in a variety of different price ranges. Admission for adults are $4 or $6 for a two-day pass. LCA members, children under 12, and active military personnel with ID card receive free admission.

Proceeds from the Festival support LCA's after-school and summer art instruction reaching over 1200 economically disadvantaged children. Additionally, LCA mounts nine contemporary exhibitions annually. And over 25,000 benefit from LCA programs each year.

Event Highlights

Lubeznik Center for the Arts' Lakefront Art Festival is a juried art fair, which means that each artist must apply, and be accepted, in order to exhibit. The application process begins only months after each Lakefront Festival ends. Lubeznik Center solicits artists in 6 categories: 2-Dimensional, Photography, Wearable Art, Fine Craft, Sculptural Objects and Jewelry. Earlier this year, a team of cross-disciplinary jurors reviewed the work of over 150 artists, assigning each a point value. Jury members of the festival were faced with the challenge of having to choose from impressive submissions from both fine art and fine craft.

Once accepted into Lubeznik Center for the Arts' Lakefront Art Festival, artists are judged by a team of experts by category to be awarded cash prizes totaling $3000. Who will the judges pick this year? Winners are announced after noon on Saturday, August 16 at the festival and will be posted on our Facebook page. Visit www.lubeznikcenter.org in the weeks after the Festival to see if your favorites are represented among the winners!

Local artists participating in the the festival are Linda Mickevicius, owner of Beach Bum Jewels; Amanda Joyner, Chef Bizzaro Millinery; Neil Keinitz, water colorist and illustrator; and Laura Panozzo, sculptor and owner of Earth Angel Eco Art Gallery.

Erza Siegel, a festival favorite, will be participating again this year. Siegel is a Chicago born artist who uses plaster, graphite powder, and thin washes of acrylic paint to develop tones, shapes and textures. The use of these mixed media interact with the local light creating unique surfaces and paint qualities. Siegel will also be exhibiting in a solo show at Lubeznik Center for the Arts in the summer of 2016.

Lakefront Art Festival offers fun for the whole family. The Kids Activity Tent will feature Chicago-based Whatever Lab on Saturday, August 15 at noon for a playful workshop. Participants will produce parachutes out of repurposed goods, including dyed coffee filters or recycled spinnakers. Once your parachute is assembled you can play with a treasure chest of goods to attach to the end of your chute. On Sunday, August 16, The Lucky Trikes will perform interactive music and storytelling at noon and again at 1:30 PM (CDT). The Lucky Trikes are a chamber band who play music to accompany award-winning children's stories. The storybooks and songs are curated around a theme focusing on the visual art in each book. The band consists of Kyle Price, a composer and vocalist who also plays toy piano and percussion; performance artist / storyteller Deirdre Harrison, who plays ukulele and also does vocals; and guest artist Lia Kohl on cello. Following story time, the band will offer children and adults a chance to have some hands on contact with the stringed and percussion instruments. To learn more about Lucky Trikes visit https://www.facebook.com/luckytrikes.

Another feature at the event is our food court. The vendors participating this year will be serving homemade ice cream, walleye fish sandwiches, hot dogs, gyros, shish kabob, chicken pita bratwurst, Hawaiian shaved ice, Philly steak, beef tips, BBQ pork, kettle corn, elephant ears, fudge and gourmet popcorns.

Festival-goers will have the opportunity to win an Art Basket when they complete a brief survey. Items will include an LCA family memberships as well art-related items. The survey helps LCA improve it's promotional efforts as well as understanding the interests of festival attendees. fill out a survey in about the festival.

Thank you to our event sponsors include: Bulk Transport Corporation and Ivy Tech Community College - Michigan City. Thanks also to our media partners and In-Kind donors: The News Dispatch, Michigan City LaPorte Convention and Visitor's Bureau, LaPorte County Life, WIMS radio, WHFB radio, South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority, WNIT television, Lakeshore Public Media, The Times Media Company, South Bend Tribune.

Interested in Attending?

The Lubeznik Center for the Arts' Lakefront Art Festival opens Saturday, August 15 (10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m CDT) and Sunday, August 16 (10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m CDT.) in Washington Park Michigan City, IN. Parking fees of $7 from Michigan City's Parks and Recreation can be avoided if patrons use FREE OFF-SITE PARKING. A free shuttle service will ferry you to and from the Festival grounds from the Lubeznik Center for the Arts and Blue Chip Casino. The shuttle is safe, friendly, and convenient. Please also note that dogs are not allowed in Washington Park. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

For more information on the event visit www.lubeznikcenter.org, or contact Lubeznik Center staff at 219-874-4900 or email artinfo@lubeznikcenter.org.