Ann Arbor Art Fairs will turn 50 next week. Ann Arbor Art Fairs is the quartet which independently sponsors fairs at central Ann Arbor for four days every summer.

The oldest of them, the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, said to be “the Original” is turning 50 on Wednesday. The first shop set up by the Street Fair was way back in 1960 on two blocks of South University Avenue.

The Ann Arbor Art Fairs — that quartet of independently sponsored fairs that occupy central Ann Arbor for four vibrant days every summer — celebrate their 50th anniversary next week.

“We were the right thing at the right time for our community,” according to Street Art Fair director Shary Brown. She will be retiring after 21 years of holding this successful art festival. “It just really took off,” she says.

The three other fairs which completes the quartet are the South University, State Street Area, and Summer Art Fairs. This event draws in more than half a million visitors every year and hundreds of artist across North America.

This year there will be an expanded performance on Ingalls Mall. Brown promises that this larger tent will shelter talents whom you will still be talking about 10 years from now.

Artists consider this fair their ritual and to sort of relate with the customer after working in their studio for most part of the year.

Kay Yourist is a potter and director of Yourist Studio Gallery and she has had a booth for 31 years already. She just laughed when asked if she makes a lot of money. She said that not a lot but it is a way of advertisement for her and an opportunity to let the people know about their studio classes. As a matter of fact, several of her instructors and students will be selling their creations at the Yourist Studio booth.

There is going to be a lot of celebration as Ann Arbor Art Fairs celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Find an Ann Arbor Art in the Directory of Ann Arbor, MI.