WATERVILLE — A summer arts festival that has drawn crowds of vendors and spectators to downtown Main Street for decades has been canceled for 2015, leaving some in the arts community fearing that the annual event may be gone for good.

Meanwhile, Arts Fest organizer Waterville Main Street says it’s in the process of “replacing” the festival with opportunities for art work to be displayed at other area events at different times of the year. Jen Olsen, executive director of Waterville Main Street, confirmed this year’s annual festival has been canceled but said it could be resuscitated in the future.

Barbara McPherson’s hat draws the attention of a friend during her stroll through Waterville’s Arts Fest in 2012. Staff file photo

Waterville artist Keith Curtis talks to Ursula Chamberland about one of his pieces at the Arts Fest in 2012. Staff file photo

Alternate Festivals

Following the cancellation of Arts Fest this year, other events are planning to set aside space for local artists to display their work.

• OakFest, a new event in Oakland, will have space for artists at its open air market from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 25.

• The Taste of Waterville will host artists in Castonguay Square during the popular event starting at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5.

The Maine Craft Weekend, coinciding with Waterville Main Street’s autumn Harvest Festival, will host artists at Head of the Falls on the waterfront Oct. 3-4.

“Short-term, the goal is to make something happen for our creative community this summer,” Olsen said.

The festival has traditionally been held on the fourth Saturday in July. It was started in 1969, and during its heyday attracted more than 100 vendors and brought hundreds of visitors to downtown Waterville.

But in recent years the turnout has been sluggish. In 2013, organizers canceled the festival because not enough artists registered for the event. It was restored the next year but only about 50 artists signed up. “It didn’t get the response we hoped,” Olsen said.

Olsen and other organizers hope that new groups such as Waterville Creates!, a cultural consortium established last year, can inject new energy into Arts Fest even if it moves on from its traditional weekend gathering. Now, the intent is to take advantage of “shoulder seasons” in spring and autumn, where Waterville sees more visitors compared to the summer, Olsen said.

“We’re hoping for something better in the future,” she said.

For some members of Waterville’s artist community, the abrupt cancellation of Arts Fest this year is heartbreaking.

“It’s a disappointment,” Amy Cyrway, standing behind the counter of Framemakers shop on Main Street, said Tuesday.

Cyrway, president of the Waterville Area Arts Society, has been involved with Arts Fest for more than a decade. Interest in the event was strong when she started attending in 2003, but after the economic recession started seven years ago, people were less likely to spend money on art, dealing the festival a blow, she said.

“After that, it was pretty hard to bounce back,” Cyrway said.

Instead of Arts Fest, other events will have space available for artists. Oakfest, a new annual gathering being organized in Oakland July 25, is opening part of its open air market to artists, while the Taste of Waterville is planning to give artists a space in Castonguay Square during the popular event Aug. 5.

“We all thought it would be a perfect venue and event,” said Christian Savage, program manager at the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the Taste of Waterville.

Waterville Creates! is also hoping to incorporate local artists as part of its Maine Craft Weekend festival scheduled for Oct. 3-4.

Nate Rudy, director of Waterville Creates!, said the intent is to highlight the region’s overall creative economy and tie it into broader statewide marketing efforts.

“We really want to rally around central Maine’s artists, crafters and makers,” Rudy said. “We want to be open and entrepreneurial. We’re going to experiment with this and see how it goes.”

Cyrway and her husband, Brian Vigue, aren’t taken with the idea to combine aspects of Arts Fest with other events. The entire point of Arts Fest is to draw attention to art and artists, Cyrway said. Organizers have previously tried to pair Arts Fest with other events, and the results have been disappointing, she said.

In 2012, for example, Waterville Main Street promoted three summer events together, including the “Waterville Intown Arts Festival” on July 28; “Artworks” showings at galleries July 7-Aug. 4; and the Taste of Waterville on Aug. 1.

Cyrway is skeptical of the latest proposal to include space for art vendors at events such as the Taste of Waterville. People aren’t likely to be looking to buy an expensive piece of art at a food festival, she said, and vendors might not like the idea of customers eating around their work, even if the popular event draws more potential customers.

“Taste of Waterville is a wonderful event, but it isn’t Arts Fest,” she said. “Art shouldn’t be treated as a commodity; it shouldn’t be treated as just numbers. It’s part of the community.”

Vigue said consolidation of the festival into a larger crafts event is also unappealing.

“Personally, as a fine artist, I’m not interested in that,” Vigue said. Craftspeople were involved in last year’s Arts Fest, but it seemed out of place, Vigue added. He would probably feel the same way as an artist at a craft fest, but might be open to having a specific section for artists at the planned Maine Craft Weekend.

For Cyrway, the hope is that Arts Fest, or some version of it, can be brought back in the future. Local artists have a strong sentimental attachment to the event, established by prominent community members like Bill Taylor, who died in 2013, and that provides a strong incentive to keep the tradition alive, she said.

But others worry that this year’s cancellation may end the event for good.

“I’m afraid it’s gone,” said Ellen Richmond, who owns the Children’s Book Cellar, a few doors down from Cyrway’s frame shop in downtown.

Richmond, a Waterville Main Street board member, was on the Arts Fest organizing committee for years. The downtown organization has consistently lost money on the event, she said.

“The reality is Waterville Main Street can’t run projects that they lose money on,” Richmond said. It has also faced competition with similar events on the coast scheduled for the same weekend, she added.

Despite the strong emotional attachment to the festival, Richmond thinks it might be time to let it go — a position she knows will be unpopular within the arts community.

“It’s sad. I love Arts Fest, but the last few years have been really, really low energy,” Richmond said. “As much as I hate to say it, there are some things that need to take a hiatus.”

Peter McGuire — 861-9239

pmcguire@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @PeteL_McGuire

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