Issue date: 7/17/08 Section: Arts

Media Credit: City of Evanston Each year the flag ceremony "Parade of Nations" inaugurates the international festival.

Media Credit: City of Evanston Members of the community gather to see performances and view the work of musicians, artists and craftsmen from all over the world at last years Ethnic Arts Festival in Dawes Park.

More than one hundred artists from countries all around the globe will gather at Dawes Park this weekend to showcase their work in Evanston's 23rd annual Ethnic Arts Festival. This year first-time organizer Naomi Echeandia hopes to market to a younger and more family-friendly audience than ever before.

Each July everyone from art enthusiasts to Evanston's very own Mayor Lorraine Morton attends the outdoor festival, where visitors can experience a taste of the cultures of the world in the forms of song, dance, spoken word, visual arts and food. Live music, dance performances, and art workshops provide a diverse and engaging environment for attendees to enjoy. The opening flag ceremony, known as the "Parade of Nations," displays more than one hundred flags and kicks-off the festival on Saturday at noon. This year's festival will include 116 artist vendors with 125 booth spaces, over twenty entertainers on two stages and more than fifteen food vendors.

"I've been [at the Ethnic Arts Festival] every year, and it is a wonderful and outstanding event," says Mayor Lorraine, who will introduce the world-renowned Boban I Marko Markovic Orkestar on Saturday. "The entertainment is great, not to mention the vendors and artists themselves."

Echeandia looks forward to carrying on the tradition of putting on this quality event, but also plans on using her background in art administration to make it an even greater success. Months of planning resulted in a family stage that presents acts like "Those Funny Little People" to cater to a younger crowd. After working with a new designer to create an even more "kid-friendly" logo, she is certain that families and particularly children will add to the liveliness of the event.

"I'm really excited about this year's festival," Echeandia says, who is originally Mexican and Puerto Rican. "The festival itself is going to be the same great event that people have always loved, but we're just changing the image in an attempt to reach a younger audience."

Artists like Deborah Kerr and Lutfiye Gokcen are preparing for this year's festival by literally bringing a little piece of their home countries to Evanston.

Kerr, who works mainly with jewelry, travels to villages near the rainforests of Brazil every year to obtain seeds that she transforms into beads. After a complicated process of cleansing, drying, and polishing the seed, she cuts it into a shape more aesthetically pleasing for earrings and necklaces, and then returns to the U.S. to sell them.

"Other people use beads to make jewelry but they don't have designs like mine," says Kerr, who participated in the festival for the first time last year. "I'm somewhat new to this but each time I do these shows, I see more and more that people really like my pieces."

Gokcen's forte is handmade Turkish pieces, particularly what is known as Iznik ceramic pottery from 9th century Anatolia. She explains that the artists fire a special combination of ground glass and clay, and then decorate the vase's glossy white surface with designs like colorful tulips. She also plans on displaying many other mediums of authentic art that she has brought from Turkey such as Arabic calligraphy and the traditional blue "evil eyes."

"I look for a high-class festival where I can sell these fine and delicate pieces of art," Gokcen says. "And I think that the Ethnic Arts Festival is a place where I can do that."

People interested in volunteering in this event are encouraged to contact the City of Evanston Cultural Arts Division for more information.

sarasuleiman@northwestern.edu

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