After 16 years, annual Alley Art Festival in Aurora coming to an end Saturday

The Alley Art Festival taking place this Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. on Water Street Mall and Downer Place in downtown Aurora could be viewed as a bonus.

After last year’s successful event, co-founder and director Marissa Amoni was ready to go out on a high note, but later decided the community, which has been so supportive of this grass-roots outdoor event in downtown Aurora for so long, deserved more notice.

And so, the festival, which since 2010 has helped make arts more visible, accessible and woven into everyday life in Aurora, will take its final bow.

Calling it quits after 16 years of success was an emotional decision for Amoni, who had served as events coordinator for the former Aurora Downtown group, but took on an independent role for this art fair that, over the years, grew from a few dozen to 100 participants, and expanded to include live music, children’s activities, food trucks and community organizations.

In doing so, Alley Art became part of the broader grass-roots revitalization that was helping bring activity and energy back downtown.

Still, deciding this year’s fair would be its last was not a hard call for Amoni, who told me she turned 50 this year and did not want to continue with the commitment of time, money and energy it took to organize the daylong event.

“It is time to pass the torch,” Amoni said, “and I hope that the city looks to pick it up in some capacity.”

So does Teresa Fiehn Millies, who became a participant in this festival in 2014 when she was “just beginning to make fiber art.”

Over the years, the festival has “been a reason to test new ideas and accumulate things to sell,” she said, which for her personally included making crochet pillows, writing a book and having her quilts displayed in shows across this country and the United Kingdom.

“I would not have grown in the way I have if I didn’t have Alley to give me a reason to try new things,” Fiehn Millies admitted. “I don’t know anyone who isn’t devastated that this is the last year.”

Laura Lynne, who does mixed media art and mural paintings, noted that among the many reasons this Aurora festival “will be sorely missed” is the low cost, ease of participating and emphasis on local talent. It also lets artists display multiple categories of work, which personally allowed her to “test which products were popular and helped me to learn what to focus on in my business.”

Lynne also gives the event glowing reviews for the “great community support” behind it, and describes the festival as “a celebration of art in Aurora.”

Which is why Amoni, who has long been an advocate for a healthy arts community, is “concerned right now.”

For one thing, Aurora Public Art does not have a director since Jenn Byrne, also a co-founder of Alley Art Festival, was removed in 2024, she said. And there have been other changes in the city’s downtown revitalization structure that she believes have made it more difficult to continue the event.

In a letter to the city, she expressed appreciation for its past support while also noting the “infrastructure is not there” to keep the event going.

“Just like life, events mutate and evolve, and hopeful new ones pop up,” Amoni wrote, also noting her desire that this crossroads will “become a conversation the community will have now.”

In an email response I received from the city, praise was heaped on Amoni for growing a “well-loved brand around the event,” while also noting her “connections to local creatives who can assist in carrying the torch.”

It’s not like she’s not tried finding her replacement, but taking on that responsibility is not an easy sell because of the money, time and other resources needed, Amoni insisted. That being said, she wants to be clear Alley Art Festival will continue as an “arts driver in the community” — hosting classes, workshops and other smaller community events.

In its reply to me, the city wrote it “will miss” this festival, but also emphasized the many programs and initiatives that make Aurora a “noted arts hub throughout the western suburbs,” including a mix of city-supported events, public art and the many art organizations, businesses and grass-roots groups that keep downtown filled with creative programming year-round.

That email reply also stated that should Amoni ask the city about taking on the festival after this year “staff would definitely be open to that conversation.”

No doubt plenty of artists would like to see that discussion happen.

“My hope is that the city will see the benefit and, honestly, the legacy of this festival and decide to take it over and keep it going,” Fiehn Milles told me. “Alley Art is so much more than a simple art fair. It has created a community.”

dcrosby@tribpub.com