The 16th annual Unplaza Art Fair returns this month, promising to be bigger and better than ever. There will be more than 85 artists and craft booths lining the street.
It will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23rd on the grounds of the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church at 4501 Walnut St., on the same block as the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Kansas City Art Institute.
I always like the Unplaza Art Fair better than the Plaza Art Fair, which is curiously held the same weekend.
The Unplaza Art Fair is a little more crafty, a little more crunchy and less slick. The exhibitors are more willing to talk about their work and there are fewer baby carriages to dodge.
Plus, you don't have mega-corporate chain restaurants like Capital Grille and Cheesecake Factory hawking overpriced bad food to you.
This event began in a church member's front yard and is reminiscent of a neighborhood block party. Everybody seems to know each other and there is a decidedly mellow vibe.
Kris Cheatum, one of the organizers, describes it as simply, "good art, nice ambiance, peaceful people."
While the Plaza Art Fair basically acts as a shill, burnishing the public image of financial behemoth American Century, the Unplaza Art Fair benefits PeaceWorks Kansas City, a nonprofit, all-volunteer group.
The group provides information about how our representatives vote and publish contact numbers to get hold of those politicians.
Percentages of the artists' income also benefit "Adopt-A-Minefield," a U.N. sponsored effort to clean up some of the debris American adventuring has left behind.
PeaceWorks Kansas City keeps an eye on the local nuclear weapons industry with The Kansas City Plant Awareness Project which raises peoples' consciousness of a plant at 95th Street & Troost Avenue that manufactures 85 percent of all American nuclear weapons triggers.
If you would like to get involved or learn more, contact PeaceWorks Kansas City, 4509 Walnut St., or (816) 561-1181, or peaceworkskc.org. Volunteers and donations are welcome.
I think it's great there is a challenge to the overblown Plaza Art Fair. The Unplaza Art Fair claims the scheduling is coincidental (every year?).
Cheatum gives a coy response. "We're no threat to the Plaza," she said.
If you have a desire for Deco, a need for knickknacks, or a yen for pen and ink drawings, stop by the Unplaza Art Fair and throw your support to a local concern. It is actually trying to do some good in the world, and not just stroking its ego.
tmillett@unews.com
