Elgin hosts first Fallback Arts Festival

As Daylight Saving Time draws to a close and clocks go back one hour, the final events of Elgin’s first Fallback Arts Festival will get under way.

The three-day festival boasts six events showcasing photography, painting, poetry and theater. The opening reception starts at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, in the Draewell Gallery of Art at Judson University, 1151 N. State St., in Elgin. The 1440 Photography Exhibit will feature selected photos from Sept. 10 — a day in the life of Elgin. Participants had the opportunity to capture any moment on that day within the 1,440 minutes of available time.

The photography project is an annual event sponsored by the Cultural Arts Commission and will remain on display at Judson beyond the festival weekend.

Sean Hargadon, chairman of the Cultural Arts Commission, said the festival is a chance to bring multiple elements of the arts community together for a single, signature event. Those who appreciate art are welcomed alongside those who create it.

“Whether they’re a spectator watching or an artist that wants to participate in a workshop,” Hargadon said. “This would be an opportunity, and at the same time, it will help support the idea that Elgin is the city in the suburbs and an arts destination.”

Award winning artist Susan Henshaw and 2003 Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein will lead workshops Saturday, Nov. 5, for artists interested in honing their crafts. Dawn Arnold, Chicago actress, director and theater teacher will lead a workshop teaching the Michael Chekhov technique Sunday, Nov. 6.

Hargadon said workshops are often hard to find in the suburbs.

“There’s tremendous opportunity in Chicago for workshopping and further development,” Hargadon said. “It’s good to be in an environment and climate where you can do that.”

Though all of the weekend events are free and open to the public, the arts commission is asking artists who wish to participate in the workshops to register ahead of time by sending an email to elginarts@gmail.com.

The events will be very approachable for artists of all skill levels interested in improving their own work. For the painting workshop, participants should bring their own materials and expect demonstration of techniques as well as individual instruction.

Poets should bring a sample of their work for Stein’s workshop. And actors should be ready to learn a technique that emphasizes a physical style of acting when approaching character portrayal.

Stein will read a selection of his own poetry during an evening reception on Saturday, where Pop-Up Poetry Project artwork will also be on display as a sneak preview. The Pop-Up Poetry Project pairs photos with original poems that will be displayed as public art throughout Elgin. Submissions were collected in the spring.

Sunday’s final performance will be a one-woman show in the evening as Arnold puts on “The Lydia Études: About Loving Anton Chekhov,” an original work about the controversial love between the famous Russian writer and a woman named Lydia.

The weekend’s events are sponsored by the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission and offered for free. Hargadon said the commission sponsors and develops at least 30 programs a year, a major feat on a budget of less than $75,000.

“A lot of it is developing relationships, working with people and making your money go as far as we can,” Hargadon said.

Hargadon said the last few years in Elgin have been like a “Golden Age” for arts in the city. He wants to see a strong turnout this weekend but, like all of the commission events, the Fallback Arts Festival is an “experiment” he hopes the community will embrace.

“There’s a lot of good things happening,” Hargadon said. “We just want to expose as many people as we can.”