August 26-27 was a great weekend to host the 2nd Annual Art in the Park at Village Park in downtown Waunakee.  The scenic location was a natural setting for the art vendors, beautiful music in the Gazebo and great food by the Optimists.  This event is showing great signs of growth – from 17 vendors in 2005 to 23 in 2006 – with the word spreading that this is a great, quality show.

Because the show is a juried art show, the artists knew that the quality had to be top notch and it showed.  Beautiful selections in photography/graphics, jewelry, drawing/paintings, glass, metal, potter/ceramic, fibers/textiles and wood were on display.  Essential Family Vision Care in DeForest had a special art tent for children that was also a big hit.  The musical groups selected for this year offered a special blend of music variety and was truly enjoyed by everyone.

The great selections were made possible by the generous sponsorship from Chamber members American Family Insurance/Fritz Durst, Anne Marie Design, LLC, Border Art Picture Framing, Bremser Group, Inc., Murphy Insurance Group, Rex’s Innkeeper, Inc., and Uniek, Inc. Both days were filled with selections from local talent John Statz, the Dave Stoler jazz quartet and the Celtic family group, Greenfyre.  The Waunakee Optimists offered a delicious selection of food for both days supplemented by popcorn from Gramps & Gramps popcorn wagon, coffee and pastries from Funky Bean on Saturday and coffee from Mefferts One Stop on Sunday  and donuts both days from Piggly Wiggly for the artists.

The Best of Show award was given to photographer Charlie Jefko from Mt. Horeb.  The Award of Excellence was given out to Wendy Meicher of McFarland for jewelry, Katie Stintz of Sun Prairie for her paintings, glass work by Don Spenser and Laurie Sauer of Waunakee and Middleton, metal to Janet Erickson of Theresa and Sandy Hagist, Mt. Horeb for pottery.  Honorable mentions went to D&S Wood of Waunakee, Matt Tyler of Sun Prairie for metal sculptures and Tom Germanson of Waunakee for his photography.

The 2007 Show will again be held at Village Park on August 25-26.  There will be some changes to next years show; however, great art, good food and beautiful music will remain the same.  Application information will be available after December 1 and we encourage spreading the word on what a great show this is and we welcome more artists for next year.