‘A big deal’: Art This Way celebrates 10 years, trades annual art crawl for a larger free festival

In 2016, Alex Hall started pulling a thread to find answers about Fort Wayne’s lack of public art. 

“I was just an artist in the community – and I was really interested in answering the question, ‘Why didn’t we have more murals and public art in our downtown?’” she says.

That curiosity led to the creation of Art This Way, which transforms mundane surfaces in the city’s downtown district into works of art. Working under the umbrella of Downtown Fort Wayne as Art This Way Manager, Hall coordinates the funding and creation of public art installations. To date, the program has overseen the installation of more than three dozen large-scale permanent installations.

This year marks a decade of the program. As milestone anniversaries do, the date marks an opportunity to reflect and to make strategic moves. For Art This Way, the first major change is saying goodbye to its annual Art Crawl, which Hall says they’ve outgrown. Instead, the first ever Art This Way Fest on Oct. 2 and 3 will take its place. 

“[The Art Crawl] was a very structured event with stops and indoor locations,” Hall says. “[Art This Way Fest] is not like that. This event is fully outdoors, and it is a totally different event. We’re getting away from the word crawl with some intentionality.”

The festival will be a free, two-day event on Broadway. The lineup includes a fine art fair, live art demonstrations, buskers and street performers, food trucks, a kids market, and a mural dedication honoring the program’s 10-year legacy. The event also features local and national music acts, including headliners Tank and the Bangas and The Strumbellas. 

Melissa Twitchell is volunteering to help with band booking and hospitality at Art This Way Art Fest. She previously volunteered with Middle Waves for 6 years, helping with band booking and hospitality before it transferred ownership in 2023, and as a self-described music lover, she often travels to attend concerts and music festivals. She says Art Fest has the potential to become a major event. 

“I really do genuinely believe it’s a big deal. I remember being in Fort Wayne and experiencing Middle Waves and riding my bicycle home from seeing Flaming Lips during that first Middle Waves,” Twitchell says. “This is pretty similar. People should be coming in from all over. I would say it’s a big draw as a music lover and someone who travels for these types of things pretty regularly; if I showed up in a city and this was happening, I mean, that would be a destination for me.”

From her point of view, the festival combines aspects of popular Fort Wayne events like Middle Waves, Buskerfest, and the Art Crawl in a new way.

“It’s a culmination of all these big things that we love to have happen in our community, and for so many people to be able to take advantage of it at no cost is pretty amazing,” Twitchell says. “It’s so much bigger than what was created back then, in that it includes so much more of all of the arts highlight and just the scale of things is bigger in terms of the community we’ll reach and the footprint.”

Speaking of the event’s footprint, Downtown Fort Wayne’s recent district expansion lined up perfectly, bringing in both the Well Street Coordinator and Broadway ahead of these major changes. For Hall, with Broadway now within her working area, it made sense to bring the event to life in a space that is already home to several creative businesses and events. The Broadway Arts District hosts First Fridays each month. In October, this coincides with the Art This Way Fest. 

“We’re coming alongside the First Friday event on [Oct. 2],” Hall says. “We’ll already have people interested in galleries and art coming out for that, but there will be more artwork on display, so we’re hoping that people come down for the more than 60 fine art fair booths. Galleries will be open and doing their First Friday.”

Art This Way Fest spans from Jefferson to the Electric Works campus, leaving plenty of space for the estimated 10,000 people expected to attend each day. That number is much larger than the first Art Crawl, which Hall describes as “poorly attended.”

“2017 was the first year we did it. 200 brave, lovely human beings came, and it was fun for those that were there, but it was just the beginning of what we were trying to do. To be fair, we didn’t have a lot of public art installed yet,” she adds. 

At the time, the event served as a funding mechanism for the program. Hall explains that in the early days, the funds raised at this event would help determine what murals could be installed in the next year.

“We didn’t really have a consistent mechanism for raising dollars, so we wanted our fundraiser to be a grassroots movement,” she says. “And by attending the Art This Way Art Crawl, people were giving money that would go directly to paying for the bands and all the things at the event, but also ultimately the profit was all spent on the next year’s public art program. That was how we operated for the first couple of years.”

In its early years, Hall was focused on intentionally building Art This Way for longevity and finding ways to connect with and educate people about the impact art can have. As with other developments, like Parkview Field, that have proved to be monumental in the city’s development, Art This Way faced criticism and concerns early on. 

“By injecting artwork into walkways and alleyways, there was a group of people that were very concerned that this was going to incite this wild, dangerous urban space,” she recalls. “Many of those people have since decided different.” 

Time provided the proof Art This Way needed to prove itself, cementing its place as a driver of growth for the city’s downtown district. Hall estimates anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people attended the Art Crawl in recent years. As Art This Way managed to get more public art installed, their support grew. 

As a result, the focus has shifted, and the program’s ability has grown. With more structure in place and more experience under its belt, Art This Way’s events do not have to be centered around fundraising to stay afloat. Making the event free to attend opens the doors and gives more people the opportunity to experience the programming.

“The former fundraiser event was a great way for fans of Art This Way to experience the program in a positive way, come out and do things with their family, and support the program,” Hall says. “This year the event is free. In lieu of a ticket, we have an Amplify Art campaign running, which allows people to donate any amount to help support this program. There are several ways for people to still choose to put their money toward Art This Way, but we wanted to make sure that this celebration has a low barrier to access.”

If the first 10 years of Art This Way were focused on educating and building a strong foundation, Hall says her hope for the next 10 is expanding the program’s scope, including new art forms like sculptures or written word, and pieces that use light, sound, or motion. 

“Really early on we were scrappy and what we could afford were murals,” she says. “I see, in the next 10 years, a scenario where we will have the budget to allow us to do more exciting things. Projects that keep us in tandem with bigger cities; we can fo what they’re doing in their communities, and Fort Wayne deserves it.”

More on the event:

Art This Way Art Fest takes place on Oct. 2 from 5-11 p.m. and Oct. 3 from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. at the Broadway Corridor. 

Music and Entertainment:

National headliner Tank and the Bangas will take the main stage at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. The weekend’s music lineup also includes Kangaroo Kourt, The Debutants, Whoa, Man!, Legendary Trainhoppers, Los Electro, Casual Friday, Cougar Hunter, DJ Arora, DJ Trend, DJ She Cut It, Ta’korei, and Jadon Knapp and the Crisis.

Additional entertainment will include a Silent Disco with DJ Trend, The Cincinnati Circus performing its Wheel of Death & Fire Show, roaming and aerial buskers, and The Art of Freestyle, a hip-hop dance competition.

Art & Activities:

The Fort Wayne Arts Festival on Broadway will feature more than 60 regional artist booths showcasing ceramics, painting, mixed media, glasswork, printmaking, jewelry, and more. The juried art fair will be open Friday, Oct. 2, from 5:00-9:00 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 3, from 10:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.

Vendors confirmed to participate include 218 Art Studio, Art Bank Studios, Roy Boswell Art, Infinite Artwork by Cole, Elly Bead, Lily Feno, Maranatha Clay, Millie Young, Susan Voigt, Lexy Reader, Kerstin Glaess Art, Nicole Capriglione, Wagdog Studio, Saylor Art & Design, Strong Art Gallery, Relic Emporium, Ann English, Corrie Church Fine Art, Pelka Ceramics, Melanie Palmer of Embroiders Guild of America FW Chapter, Metaform Ceramics, YazzFW, Redhead Art Glass Studio, Imagine In Glass, William Lupkin Designs, Chuchias y Cachivaches, LK Simerman Artistry, Black Shed Art, CeeCaahKna Studio, Beth Forst, Clive Jachnik, Jordan Fine Art Jewelry, ARG the Artist, Inman Wood Art, Capricious Whimsy, Woodie Works of Art, Fremion Art, Stephanie Ross, J. Clifton Studio & Gallery, Valerie McBride Design, The Art Farm, Kimberlee Tubbs Art, Jewelry by Matt B, Jewelry Design by Paula Noll, Linda Schwartz, Fort Wayne Artists Guild, Sarah Leitch Art, Y.V. Made, Sadly Harmless Illustration, Sol Eye Glass, Reclaimed Red Oak, Gallery 809, Ahoy Handcrafted, and WTM Woodcarving.

The Art of Fashion event, powered by Bill Blass Legacy, will feature local designers and stylists, with artists exhibiting three complete looks during the coordinated fashion show. Participants include Soul Threading, Athena Baumgartner, Ale, Belle Alonzo, Pinky Saunders, Jae McGee, Tq Franklin, Lydia Waring, STMFP, Sarah Newport, Davyn Wright, Ella Tretter, and Amber Hehl.

Young artists ages 5-18 will also have an opportunity to showcase and sell their artwork in the Kreative Kids area near Hopscotch House. Additional family-friendly programming on Saturday will include inflatable obstacle courses, face painting, free pony rides from Hooley Family Farms, and activities with Lutheran Health Network.