Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Holiday events: Shadow Art Fair and Mittenfest

1. December 2007 • Murph
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Today, noon to midnight, the Arbor Brewing Company’s Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti (directions from ABC to CB) will be hosting the Fourth Shadow Art Fair. Admission is five cents. At 6pm, a special “Shadow Brew” will be served; $1 from each Shadow Brew sold, as well as the nickels from admission, will be used for micro-grants to support local arts projects.

SAF vendors include a variety of artists, musicians, and crafters from around the area, ranging from coffee-art-and-cars Roos Roast to Matt Callow’s pinhole photography to the Ann Arbor-based Bulb Records label to clothier and printshop VG Kids.

Then, December 21-22, Mittenfest II will feature 23 local bands in a benefit multi-show for 826michigan. Organized by ArborUpdate alum Brandon, from his new headquarters on the banks of the East River, the show will get underway at 9:30pm, Friday the 21st, at Ann Arbor’s Blind Pig, continuing at noon, Saturday, at the Corner Brewery, before moving to the Elbow Room Saturday night. The schedules linked include links to myspace, etc, for artist information.



  1. Thanks for the heads-up on the Shadow Art Fair. That wasn’t on my radar so I was glad that I was able to stop by this evening. It was pretty packed and the artists that I talked to said it had been pretty busy all day. We’ll see how things go this evening with the snow flying!


       —John Q,    Dec. 2 '07 - 06:31AM    #
  2. Question is, John, did you see me there and choose not to reveal your secret identity? Maybe next time.

    When I was there around three, one of the artists told me that she’d sold almost everything she brought in the first two hours of the show. Fortunately, much of what she does is collage, and she had supplies on hand, so was able to live-action craft additional items during the show.

    When I went back later in the evening, around 8, I noticed several tables looking notably sparser than they had at the beginning of the day. And not just buttons and greeting cards and so forth – when I swooned over an object but apologized for it being out of my price range, the artist happily commented that it was okay; she’d brought five of them, and that one was the only one left, so she was doing pretty well.


       —Murph.    Dec. 2 '07 - 09:22PM    #
  3. I was looking for the “I blog at Arbor Update” t-shirts but no luck. I’m sure they would be a money maker. I was there around 6.


       —John Q,    Dec. 3 '07 - 09:05AM    #
  4. Mrs. Structure-Dude! and I dropped in to Mittenfest for about an hour again this year. Emily Jane Powers was cute and sounded good and should have played longer. The Actual Birds dude gets points for courageously following though on an insane idea, but he should have sung into the microphone more. We would have liked to have stayed longer and drank more scotch ale, but the Saturday before Christmas is a busy day.

    Thanks once again to Brandon and the others who set this up.


       —Parking Structure Dude!    Dec. 25 '07 - 05:45AM    #