St. Charles Fine Art Show returning to city’s downtown this weekend

After taking a year off because of the pandemic, the St. Charles Fine Art Show will return to downtown St. Charles on Saturday and Sunday.

The show, organized by the St. Charles Business Alliance, will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday on Riverside Avenue. Last September, the show was merged with St. Charles Jazz Weekend following its cancellation.

The St. Charles Fine Art Show will kick off the summer festival season, which will look more this normal this year as the state’s COVID-19 positivity rate continues to go down as a result of more people getting vaccinated. To ensure the health and safety of everyone, the artists as well as attendees are being asked to wear masks.

“We will be strongly recommending that attendees wear a mask and that they continue to socially distance during the event,” St. Charles Business Alliance Events Manager Amy Curione said. “There will be signage stating that as well. We strongly encourage it, just for the safety of everyone.”

Hand washing stations along with hand sanitizer will also be at the event and artist booths will be set at least six feet apart.

“We’re going to have dividers to create one-way aisles,” she said. “We’re just following the same protocols we have with all of our outside events.”

This year’s feature tent at the show will host the St. Charles Arts Council, which will be promoting the Amanda Browder fabric art installation coming to the St. Charles Municipal Building in August. The St. Charles Arts Council will also be collecting donations of cotton fabric with saturated deep colors to be used in the installation.

The show will also feature live music both Saturday and Sunday at locations throughout downtown St. Charles. A schedule of performers is available at stcharlesfineartshow.com/events-around-downtown.

The Arcada Theatre will hold an open house during the show. Those who attend the open house will be able to see the renovations that have been made at the Arcada Theatre in the past year.

In addition, 116 Gallery – located in Mixology Salon Spa – will showcase the colored pencil and graphite creations of Andria Burchett, paintings by Janice Czerwinski, photographs from Sue Braunsky, sculptures by Howard Russo and fine woodworking by Tory Haines.

More than 90 artists – including 45 new artists – will be part of the juried show, now in its 23rd year. Curione hopes that people who come to the show will see what downtown St. Charles has to offer.

“That’s what we’re hoping, that people make at least a day out of it and go visit our restaurants, walk around the Fox River, go see the art in Mount St. Mary Park and check out all our outstanding shops,” she said.

More information about the St. Charles Fine Art Show is available at stcharlesfineartshow.com.