Uptown Art Fair will go on this summer as Bachman’s steps in to save the day

The Uptown Art Fair will take place this summer after all.

Two months after the organization that puts on the extravaganza every August called it off due to road construction on Hennepin Avenue, Bachman’s put out the welcome mat and agreed to host the award-winning art fair in the parking lot of its south Minneapolis headquarters.

“They are part of our community; they are our neighbors,” said Karen Bachman Thull, director of marketing and communications for Bachman’s. “We try to be a part of the community. We have space. We can carry on the legacy of the Uptown Art Fair. People are in for a treat.”

The Uptown Art Fair @ Bachman’s on Aug. 3-4 won’t be as big a shindig as the traditional Uptown Art Fair, which draws about 320 artists and thousands of guests to the area surrounding Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue S. Only about half that many artists — most of them local — will be selected to sell their wares at 60th Street and Lyndale Avenue S. With a much smaller footprint, the fete will also feature fewer food trucks, kids’ activities and music.

It’s hardly what organizers envisioned for the fair’s 60th anniversary, but something is better than nothing, said Uptown Art Fair Director Jill Osiecki.

“We are fitting in as many as we can,” she said. “We can logistically put this together in a short time. We felt we owed it to the artists. We felt we let them down by canceling the event.”

The Uptown Association and Bachman’s teamed up just before the pandemic hit in 2020 to stage an art fair with about 60 vendors in one of Bachman’s greenhouses. The event was “joyful and popular,” Bachman Thull said. When she heard that this year’s Uptown Art Fair was being scrubbed for the third time in five years, she thought it would be “exciting to renew the partnership,” and reached out.

The festival was called off in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the following year due to the unrest that followed law enforcement’s fatal shooting of Winston Smith. The Uptown Association had announced that this year’s fest would be canceled due to road construction that has Hennepin Avenue closed from 26th Street to Lake Street.

“It’s a detour for just one year,” Osiecki said, saying the fair will return to its normal home next summer. She also said she’s planning new art events in an “area that needs some help” for this fall and winter.

Some businesses in Uptown are trying to get the word out that they are open during construction, handing out lawn signs that read, “Uptown is Open for Business.”

The free signs can be picked up at the UPS store in Uptown, 2801 Hennepin Av. S., while supplies last.