43
YSU festival celebrates summer, arts and community
YOUNGSTOWN
James Brindle hopes to turn a profit from his artwork at Youngstown State University’s 2015 Summer Festival of the Arts.
This is Brindle’s fifth year participating as an art vendor at the festival selling decorative items such as bowls made from alabaster stone and pepper grinders that come in various types of wood.
“It’s a nice event to come to,” the 70-year-old from Parma said Saturday. “Sales vary year by year.”
For 18 years, Brindle has done stone and wood turning to produce his products. The craft involves using a lathe, a machine that revolves the object on an axis as the craftsman uses tools to shape it.
The craft gave him something to spend time with after he retired.
“I always had an interest in wood,” he said.
Brindle uses local woods such as cherry, maple, walnut and oak. He also uses woods imported from Australia and South America.
The 17th annual Summer Festival of the Arts featured more than 70 artists at and near the YSU campus. Patrons also enjoyed food, music and dance performances.
Lori Factor, festival coordinator, said the event this year tops out as one of the nicest compared with previous years.
“I want them [attendants] to be happy that the university and the community can provide an event such as this,” said the director of community engagement and events for the College of Creative Arts and Communication at YSU.
“This area is rich in the arts and culture,” she added.
Melodie Lamping of Struthers and her husband, Dan Lamping, were among those in the crowd at the festival.
She said they have attended the event for the past nine years, and that they come for the pirogies and crab cakes served at the event.
The festival was in conjunction with other festivals this weekend, including the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church Summerfest; the unveiling of a new Abraham Lincoln portrait in the Mahoning County Courthouse rotunda; and the Downtown Jazz Fest. The Gospel Fest 2K15 will take place today in downtown Youngstown. Factor said having the festivals occurring together on the same weekend is beneficial and attracts more traffic.
“We really feed off one another,” she said.