This story has been updated. Please see editor’s note below.
Last weekend, the Malibu Chamber of Commerce held its 45th annual Arts Festival in the Civic Center area, with a few new twists just to keep it interesting and encourage people to keep coming back year after year. The layout was different, with more emphasis on food trucks, fashion, merchandise, and even new Toyotas, and less emphasis on the fine arts. But the weekend was warm, with temperatures in the ‘80s, and there were fun things for everyone to enjoy, including live music, a beer and wine garden, and a real airplane for kids to play in.
“It was a great show,” John Johannessen, Chamber of Commerce Vice-Chair of Community Relations, said. “Better than recent years.
“The biggest change was adding more events, including a modeling show with a catwalk — which was a great way for clothing vendors to promote their clothing, and we had the single largest booth we’ve ever had by one vendor (Serenity Productions),” Johannessen added.
The Chamber’s original online plan for the festival indicated they were broadening their definition of “arts” to include music, performing arts, fashion, jewelry, home, architecture, crafts, art schools and education, graffiti and vintage cars as art. Although they only included some of the new categories this year, they will be striving to add more in the future.
Artist Cansu Bulgu of Torrance, Calif. told The Malibu Times she had sold several pieces on Saturday and that her work had gotten “lots of interest.” She makes drawings on the sand, photographs the drawings and then enhances the photos with computer colors.
“Sand can represent sun, fire, water, ocean and air,” Bulgu said. “It has a beautiful sparkle.”
The vast majority of fine artists and photographers at the festival were first-timers from other parts of California who had never shown their works in Malibu before. Many of the artists who used to come back year after year are no longer there.
Some of the artists The Malibu Times spoke to were not as upbeat about the show.
Greg Magee, a photographer from Monterey, said he had sold “a few things,” but that in general the festival so far had been “slow, with a lack of people.”
Jeffrey Jon Gluck, a sculptor from the Redding area exhibiting for the first time, said, “Sales have been lacking, although I gave out a lot of postcards and got some wonderful comments.” He explained that making a living as an artist has been difficult.
“I’d been a gallery artist for a long time. In 2010, seven of the galleries that represented me closed, and the remaining ones cut way back; so, I’m looking for a different way of selling my work, and started creating less expensive pieces,” Gluck explained.
Other participants in the Arts Festival said they had a very successful weekend.
For the past 30 years, the Malibu Optimist Club has done a fundraiser pancake breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings in conjunction with the Arts Festival. This year, volunteers and members Fiona Corrigan and Olivia Thornton reported about 350 breakfasts served.
“Everyone said the pancakes were better this year than last year,” the volunteers said. “Dick Van Dyke was first in line both days.”
President Frank Brady and Board Member Mark Ball said the funds raised go to help local youth, including 10 $1,000 scholarships to Malibu High School seniors, sports equipment for the Camp Miller Junior Probation Camp, sending Malibu High School students to Carnegie Hall and 20 summer camp scholarships for the Boys & Girls Club.
Some of the booths for local nonprofit organizations like the California Wildlife Center and the Malibu Film Society were happy with the turnout.
“We had dozens of people sign up for our email list,” Ed Larson, a board member of the film society, said.
Johannessen said the Chamber would be further improving the festival-going experience for next year by adding more tables, chairs and umbrellas around the grounds, and by doing more promotion and advertising.
Mark Persson, Malibu Chamber of Commerce CEO, did not return emails or phone calls by press time.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story gave an incorrect name for Serenity Productions. The story has been updated to reflect the correction.
