This past Sunday my family and I made our annual trek to the Ohio State Fair. As usual, it’s an overwhelming and delightful cacophony of sights, sounds and smells: crowds of people, music, fried food, farm animals. We always make a point to visit the Fine Arts Exhibition in the Cox Fine Arts Center. This year’s exhibition is particularly fascinating.
We also head over to Kasich Hall to see the award winners in traditional categories like cookies, breads, pies, cakes. The quilt entries are absolutely stunning. And there’s a special exhibition of artwork by veterans.
A few of our must-visits:
- The butter cow and butter astronauts
- Deep-fried buckeyes
- The new beer garden featuring Ohio craft beers
- The SkyGlider: my absolute favorite part of the Fair
But this week isn’t just about the Fair. A quick glance at the ColumbusMakesArt.com calendars and here’s what we’re doing…
CCAD opens its triennial exhibition by faculty members this Thursday, Aug. 1. On Friday, Aug. 2, 934 Gallery opens a new exhibition with work by Mohamed Hamid, Jason Mann and Kate Morgan. Guts for Glory Theatre Company performs James & The Giant Peach, Aug. 2-3. And Blockfort opens Unseen Splendor, an exhibition of Cassidy Rae Marietta’s drawings, on Aug. 2.
We may be hitting peak summer festival season. Aside from the State Fair, the Dublin Irish Festival (Aug. 2-5) and the second-annual Women&Girls’Fest (Aug. 3) are this weekend.
The first Saturday of the month – Saturday, Aug. 3 – brings all the monthly art hops, from Gallery Hop to the Hilltop Art Hop.
On Thursday, August 1, we have a choice of amazing live music from local bands:
- The Quan Howell Project plays at the King Arts Complex’s Heritage Music Festival
- Honey & Blue perform as part of Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza’s seventh anniversary celebration
- The Floorwalkers and The Spikedrivers play a free show at the Columbus Commons
If you venture out this week, be sure to tag your arts discoveries with #artmakescbus!
Nick is Marketing, Communications, & Events Administrator for the Arts Council. He also leads culinary tours and blogs about breakfast at breakfastwithnick.com. He could go for another beer and a fried buckeye.