Moving his broadcast location from the WKNO-FM studios to the streets of East Memphis, Darel Snodgrass will be broadcasting live on Friday from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM at the "Art in the Loop" festival. The 3-day "Art in the Loop" event is a great family-friendly art festival that will be going on April 5 - 7, on Ridgeway Loop Road, between Briarcrest Ave and Ridgebend Road.
There will be an artist market and a juried group of 56 talented artists working in metal, glass, wood, clay, and fiber, plus jewelry, paintings, photography and more. In addition, there will be live music, food trucks, and more.
Talking about the event, the creator of "Art in the Loop" Greg Belz, joins Kacky Walton for Checking on the Arts.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
Kacky Walton: The "Art in the Loop" is presented by Belz's ArtWork foundation.
Greg Belz: And by WKNO. I can’t stress how happy we are to have y’all as a partner in this. It’s one of the reasons that we are focusing on classical music for the area youth ensemble. We are going to hear what the future of classical music in this region will be because we have schools coming from all over the county.
I am also excited about the fine crafts and food too.
Walton: You can hang out at this festival all day. There is something for everyone.
Belz: Yes. And, there is parking too. We have designated parking lots on our website that people can check before they come.
You can stay the entire day, or even stay the entire three days. It’s going to be a lot of fun. The weather is going to be exquisite.
And we have 56 artists planning to participate. We are very heavily juried. We look very carefully at what there is and what the mix is. We try not to have too much of any one medium so that everyone sells well.
Everyone should go to our website and get an idea of what is in store for you. You can see the food truck line-up. The youth ensembles that are coming up. You can even watch WKNO-TV's promo.
Admission is free. We are very intent on making sure that people see what the artist in our shows do and we don’t want people to be inhibited by [admission fees]. The reason that we are out east is that there is parking – free parking – and it’s convenient for people to get to.
The artist that we got, are people that work in jewelry, wood, metal, fiber, glass – and they are from all over the country. We concentrate on the Memphis area first. Southeast second and the rest of the country after that. We have people coming from places like Michigan, California, and Florida.
The show is building. Last year we had 39 artists that exhibited; this year we are scheduled to have 56. We never want to be more than 80 because we think that it dilutes the sales too much.
Walton: How do you put the call out for submissions?
Belz: It costs a little bit, but it can be done. We are proud of who we have gotten and it will be better in the future. However, we are always going to give a preference to someone who lives here [in Memphis], over someone in the same medium as someone in another place.
Walton: Darel Snodgrass will be doing a remote from Art in the Loop.
Beltz: Yes, all day Friday he will be broadcasting live.
Walton: I will be there on Saturday, from about 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM at the WKNO booth. Also, WKNO-TV show host will be there Saturday, Chris Cooper from Family Plot and Chris Hardaway from The Best Times show.
Belz: Teacher, Teacher is Sunday. She is going to have hands-on craft activities for children.
Walton: Artists will be there doing demonstrations.
Belz: Yes, we have some artist that are strictly dedicated to demonstrations. We have a couple of weavers, pottery, and someone who is going to be doing flame painting, which is metal embellishment involving a torch. You can learn about crafts from them or you can talk to the other artists there. They like to explain their process and what goes into their works so that people have a better understanding.
It’s neat stuff that we got going on. Again, we are so thrilled about the association with WKNO, Memphis Magazine and a couple of other organizations, like MasterPak. Masterpak called us to be involved. They are providing prize money for five awards in different mediums.
Walton: How is voting going to happen?
Belz: It’s not public. There are two people coming in from Oxford, MS. One is a head of the University of Mississippi Museum, another is someone else who teaches there. Also, we have someone who is a local art buyer.
Don't miss this event happening this weekend:
Friday, April 5
1:00 PM - 7:00 PM
WKNO-FM's Darel Snodgrass will be broadcasting live in the afternoon.
Saturday, April 6
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Artists' demonstration throughout the day, meet WKNO-FM's Kacky Walton, and Channel 10's Cris Hardaway, host of The Best Times, Chris Cooper, host of The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.
Sunday, April 7
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Meet WKNO Kids' host Teacher, Teacher and participate in kids' art projects
To find more information about the "Art in the Loop" festival,click here.
