This weekend, North Main Street in St. Charles hosts the 30th annual Mosaics Fine Art Festival. The free, juried event brings more than 80 artists from across the country to the historic hamlet.
With a focus on accessibility and art for all, Mosaics has been a staple for decades. “We are the only juried fine art festival in St. Charles County, so it is a one-of-a-kind thing for our area,” says festival vice president Melinda Nolan. “We’ve got all the tourists that come in for the Main Street area too, so it just ends up being a great thing to do on a nice fall weekend.”
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Artwork for sale includes clay, drawing, glass, leather, metal, pastel, oil and acrylic, photography, printmaking, sculpture, watercolor, and wood. The top nine artists in the show share in $5,000 in award funding.
It’s a competitive show: Four or five jurors view each prospective exhibitor’s online portfolio, booth images, and artist’s statement. The finalists are chosen based on the quality of their work and how they contribute to the variety and accessibly of work on offer. (Don’t expect to see a lot of multi-thousand-dollar artworks for sale.)
Festival founder Joyce Rosen, who also founded St. Charles’ Foundry Art Centre and other local festivals, was a strong believer in the value of art for kids. There’s a scholarship named for her that goes to three high school art students. Those students are chosen among nominees from area high school teachers. (The students’ artwork is not for sale, though it is on display in the Joyce Rosen Founder’s Scholarship Tent.) “Hopefully, it helps to keep them going and gives more encouragement to stay with the arts,” Nolan says. “It’s a wonderful thing for all of us—it’s something that adds to our culture so much.”
There’s also the Mary Hediger Memorial Art Shop for Kids, where budding connoisseurs between ages 4 and 14 can shop for donated pieces that cost about $5 or $10—no parents are allowed, so the young patrons can truly develop their own tastes. The proceeds go toward the scholarship program.
“A lot of them actually do go and talk to the artist of the piece that they picked and learn about the art,” says Nolan.
It’s a family-friendly event, with a Children’s Village where kids can create make-and-take pieces, in addition to live music acts and adoptable puppies.
The festival runs 4–9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Sunday.