'It just evolved': How Iowa Arts Festival began 39 years ago to become a downtown Iowa City staple

The first Iowa Arts Festival 39 years ago may have looked different, but the message it delivers remains the same: That Iowa City is an arts destination, and that programming like the festival can bring people downtown.

Summer of the Arts' Iowa Arts Festival returned Friday, June 3, a three-day event featuring 89 artists setting up booths and selling their work, plus food vendors and live music.

The Iowa Arts Festival, then called Arts Fest, kicked off for the first time in June 1983, helmed by art leaders and community members.

Puppet shows, window displays, concerts and craft demonstrations were just some of the festivities of Arts Fest, then a “weeklong downtown arts celebration,” according to Press-Citizen archives.

That first festival culminated with the Joffrey II Dancers at the Hancher Auditorium, a Saturday barbeque and an art fair.

“The whole premise is to join business and the arts,” Kristin Summerwill, an Arts Fest organizer, told the Press-Citizen in April 1983.

“We had really lofty goals,” Summerwill recalled in a May interview with the Press-Citizen.

“We wanted to do all this stuff. There were other like-minded people who were like, ‘Yeah, let's do this.’ So, we just had to sort it out and figure it out how to do it, how to fund it. But everybody was very willing. It was just like you had to ask the right questions, the right people. We got lucky. It was the perfect time to start it."

‘Stars in the Bars’ one early event that paved the way for the Arts Fest

In 1983, Summerwill was involved with the Iowa City/Johnson County Arts Council.

The council had an event called “Stars in the Bars,” inviting local musicians to perform in downtown bars, Summerwill said. That event became part of the inaugural Arts Fest as the arts council merged with downtown Iowa City to emphasize room for future programming, according to Press-Citizen archives.

Ron Clark, one of the founders of Riverside Theatre, an early promoter of the Arts Fest, said “Stars in the Bars” was an “important landmark” in developing the festival.

While it was a fairly new event in Iowa City at the time, having it sponsored by an organization like the Arts Council provided “Stars in the Bars” legitimacy to older crowds who were no longer interested in the bar scene.

It was about having more than just people stop into a few bars and hear local talent, but packaging it so that it was an event.

“It got a really nice cross-section of the community into the bars and having really great music. And at that time, there were some (sketch) theaters starting to happen — this was before the standup comic really big revolution happened — (and) there are a lot of great performers that came out,” Clark said.

‘Let's bring people into the heart of downtown’: Building the first Arts Fest

While Iowa City was rich in the arts, the community hadn’t marketed it that well to others outside the area, Clark said.

Other local artists noticed that as well. Deanne Wortman was one of them. She was working with Monica Leo of Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre when the two learned of people coming to Iowa City in the summertime to advertise arts festivals going on elsewhere.

The two agreed that Iowa City, which was full of artists, should have its own festival, and connected with folks like Summerwill to home in on what would become the Iowa Arts Festival.

Summerwill said she went to Joyce Carroll with the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department, seeking a venue for an outdoor arts fair that would also have music. The festival would be held in the Blackhawk Mini Park and Pedestrian Mall area.

Among the many people involved in organizing and supporting the Arts Fest were art council members, downtown businesses from what was then called the Downtown Association, University of Iowa connections like the Hancher Auditorium, the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department and more, Joyce Carroll said in an email to the Press-Citizen.

Summerwill's sister, Suzanne, was among the people who helped organize the first Arts Fest. Team members had different roles — working with musicians, artists, technology and more, Suzanne Summerwill said.

“The whole key was, let's bring people into the heart of downtown where they can enjoy music and just see town in the evenings and during the day. Going back to (the idea), let's expose as many people as possible, get people into stores,” she said.

Wortman was working for the Iowa City Public Library at the time creating programming for kids.

She led the programming for Kid's Day at the Arts Fest, which would later grow as other individuals got involved, she said.

Decades later, Wortman’s involvement with the festival continues. She will be at the Iowa Arts Festival with the ArtiFactory, a project of Arts Iowa City.

“This all grew, summer by summer, as the idea took root and people got more and more interested,” she said. “It just evolved.”

The budget for the Arts Fest was small in the early years. The Summerwills, who both worked for banks in the Iowa City area, utilized their connections to get small donations for the festival.

The fest also used merchandise to raise money, Summerwill said.

Suzanne Summerwill said, at the first few festivals, performers weren’t paid. That soon changed, "because I think everybody just felt that for their integrity and for their time and their professional standing, they needed to be paid,” she said.

The support from downtown businesses over the years was instrumental, according to Summerwill. In the early years of the Arts Fest, businesses gave employees time off to volunteer and participate.

Local business involvement ensured the arts fest became a city event, not just something put on by “wacky” artists, Wortman said.

The Summerwills' involvement in the festival waned after about six years. Suzanne Summerwill said it was "a labor of love."

“People talk about community pride … but honestly, I think for everybody, it was darn hard work,” she said. “Especially because it would often be really hot. You'd be running around and making sure, because you didn't have an executive director and you didn’t have a paid staff, that everything went on and, most importantly ... you could just stand back and just feel pride in what everybody had done.”

What to know about this year’s Iowa Arts Festival

The Iowa Arts Festival kicks off Friday at 5 p.m. with the art fair, featuring 89 artists from the following mediums:

• Ceramics/clay

• Drawing

• Fiber

• Glass

• Jewelry

• Metal

• Mixed media

• Painting

• Photography

• Printmaking

• Sculpture

• Wood

Food vendors include Luna’s Authentic Mexican, Mosley’s Barbecue, Marco’s Grilled Cheese and Moo Moo’s Ice Cream.

There will be performances Friday through Sunday located both at the Ped Mall stage and the main stage off Clinton Street and Iowa Avenue.

Here is Iowa Arts Festival's main stage performance schedule:

• Friday at 7 p.m.: Avey Grouws Band

• Friday at 9 p.m.: Kittel & Co.

• Saturday at 11:30 a.m.: Wooden Nickel Lottery

• Saturday at 1 p.m.: Pinicon Drift

• Saturday at 2:30 p.m.: Dickie

• Saturday at 5 p.m.: Katy Guillen & The Drive

• Saturday at 7 p.m.: Ivy Ford Band

• Saturday at 9 p.m.: Asleep at the Wheel

• Sunday at 11:30 a.m.: Maaaze

• Sunday at 1 p.m.: Wontu Trees

• Sunday at 2:45 p.m.: Them Coulee Boys

Visit the Iowa Arts Festival's website for a complete schedule and list of participating artists.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or (319) 519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Tracing the Iowa Arts Festival's 39-year run in downtown Iowa City