New date, events for Art In Your Eye festival in Batavia

The Art In Your Eye festival in Batavia is trying a new date this year to see if it gets more temperate weather and more volunteers.

It used to be held in August.

“We kept finding it interfered with the beginning of school for some people,” said Rebecca Lane, the event's chairman.

And when the festival was in July, such as when it started years ago, it ran into problems with high heat and storms, she said.

The ninth annual free event is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, at the Riverwalk, Houston Street and Island Avenue.

Seventy-two artists will exhibit their creations outside; another 50 are participating in a juried exhibit inside the Batavia Government Center, 100 N. Island Ave.

Lane said the committee worried that moving the festival in to the fall would lead to having fewer artists for the show because it is near the end of the outdoor art fair season, but more than 100 applied, she said.

Also new this year is a poetry slam, which will be held next door in the Albright Theater in the Batavia Government Center. It is sponsored by the Teen Writers and Artists Project.

And you can learn about Fox Valley-based arts organizations at the “Avenue of the Arts.”

There will be hands-on arts activities for all, including the opportunity to throw a pot with Water Street Studios artists.

Children will also be making a sculpture out of umbrellas donated by Totes.

Greta Bell's “R/Evolving Circus” will be there as well. Bell gathers stories of treasured objects and displays paintings of them on a bicycle-powered carousel.

The festival includes music at the Art In Your Ear stage at the band shell at the Peg Bond Center.

For a schedule and list of participants, visit artinyoureye.com.