Medley Of Arts

Best In Show

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May 20 & 21 was the Parma Area Fine Arts, (PAFAC), Medley of Arts Show & Sale at the Donna Smallwood Activities Center in Parma. This year the annual show featured 42 artists and over 120 creations in various mediums. Besides paintings in watercolor, acrylics, and oils, there was alcohol ink, marker, colored pencil, charcoal, mixed media, wood burning on paper, collage and photography. Also three dimensional items like wood carving, assemblage, glass, stained class, and jewelry.

This event was the largest and most successful show Parma Fine Arts has had in 20 years. The Arts Council has served this area since 1962. It consists of all volunteers, artists and art lovers. Cash prizes and ribbons are awarded to winning entries. The judges are an independent panel not affiliated with Parma Fine Arts. The judges work on a point system, scoring the pieces on originality, composition and technical use of medium. It took them over 2 hours to judge. They remarked on the high quality of the work and that made it very difficult to judge. This year two judges brought their own work for artists to critique during the show, stating that turn-about is fair play.

Besides artists from Parma, Parma Hts. & Seven Hills, there were entries from Strongsville, North Royalton, Independence, Cleveland, Lakewood, Olmsted Falls and Shaker Heights. Attendees to the two day event came from as far away as Akron to view this show. Attendees watched live demonstrations of wood carving from the Great Lakes Wood Carvers, and live acrylic painting from local artist Denise Jansen. You could meet and greet the artists. You could also win one of the 14 raffle prizes, consisting of original artwork, gift certificates & more, or the split the pot raffle.

The setup for the event was completed by many volunteers and took seven hours to check in, sort, tag and display the work. Twenty-five six foot high display screens, eight eight foot tables, two round tables and numerous chairs were staged for this event which was free admission and open to the public.

The unique thing about this annual show is that it’s not juried. Anyone, amateur or professional can enter, ages 16 and up. The majority of the local shows are juried. You submit your entries along with a fee and a panel decides whether you’re accepted or denied. Oh, and by the way, they keep the fee, even if you’re denied. PAFAC’s goal is to encourage people not discourage people to create. In past years they’ve even had a student age 16 win the biggest prize awarded.

For more information on what Parma Area Fine Arts Council is all about or what they have to offer, visit www.parmafinearts.org or follow them on Facebook.