In a few weeks, it will be Saturday, Aug. 2, and downtown Oneonta will be crowded for the fifth annual City of the Hills Fine Arts Festival, to benefit the work of The Arc Otsego.
This isn't the first open-air arts event in Oneonta. The first of its kind took place for a couple of days in June 1958. The eight-year-old Oneonta Community Art Center started the event on June 12 and 13 on the grounds of the George I. Wilber mansion on Ford Avenue, today's home of the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts.
"Paris has its Left Bank of the Seine, and Oneonta "¦ will have its Left Bank of Ford Avenue," reported the Oneonta Star on Monday, June 9.
``Under the magnolias, lindens and other trees on that spacious lawn there's going to be the biggest and most unusual art show ever held in this section.
"Artists in smocks and berets will exhibit their creative talents in the city's first Open Air Arts Fair. You can get your portrait quickly sketched for a pittance of what you'd normally pay. If you have a pet animal you want drawn, that can be taken care of too. A professional artist will do the job.
"Children will display their works, a puppet show will be presented twice each day, and a pony and bicycle parade will precede the fair."
The new event was well-received in the artisan community, as there had been more than 100 entries to display from a wide area, including Sherburne, Stamford, Worcester, Roxbury, Delhi, Laurens, Maryland and Oneonta.
The Oneonta Community Art Center was confident this show would be a hit in the community.
"This is going to be the most unusual thing that ever happened in Otsego County," said Harry Bard Jr., president of the Community Art Center.
Mrs. Hans E. Wilk and Mrs. James D. Van Woert, two other members of the Art Fair committee, expressed belief that, "people who never before put a foot inside an art center will come to the Wilber Mansion lawn."
The predictions came true. The Star reported on Friday about the fair's first day, describing attendance as a "throng" of adults and children.
"They looked at paintings hung on the iron fence, examined sculptures in the Sculpture Court,' that being the large arbor, watched artists at work, and got a kick out of the children's parade in which 18 ponies, a goat, lamb and decorated bikes took part."
Friday's forecast was good, so another large crowd was expected for the second day of the fair. Featured that day was a musical, "The Circus in Town," given by the entire sixth grade at Chestnut Street School, with William Swain, teacher.
Also that day, there were clowns, circus animals, sideshows and a barker.
Many will know and remember some of the local artists. Vernon Seeley demonstrated a potter's wheel. He had formed a small business that grew considerably, Seeley's Ceramics, which now is located in the Pony Farm Industrial Park.
Margaret Hathaway did demonstrations in flo-paque techniques. Alberta Hutchinson did pencil portrait sketches. Betsy Hulbert had fortune telling sessions through pictures. Eleanor Bolton displayed block printing. Genevieve Hamlin sketched pets. A team of Wilmer Bresee and Brackett's Bookstore took Polaroid photos. Peter Oltzen made portrait sketches in oil.
Oneonta's "Left Bank" was born.
This weekend: Otsego County's first newspaper.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.
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