Two fairs: Leeper Park and Art Beat

1967 - 2019

The older fair: South Bend's festival culture, like Fort Wayne's, is older than its famous events. The Leeper Park Art Fair began in 1967 in the riverside park north of downtown, sponsored by the St. Joe Valley Watercolor Society, founded in 1959 by the artist and teacher Jozef Wrobel, who began the fair. It runs the third weekend of June, and the Common Council's resolution of 26 June 2017, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, recorded its stature: rated No. 70 on Sunshine Artist magazine's 2015 list of the top 200 fine art shows in the country, drawing some 120 fine artists a year. Since 1967 it has missed exactly one year, 2020. A watercolor society's park fair, run by volunteers for nearly sixty years, is the festival form at its most South Bend: modest, durable, and owned by the artists themselves.

Art Beat: The younger festival took the downtown itself. Art Beat began in 2003 as the brainchild of a Leadership South Bend and Mishawaka class, a September weeknight event in its first years, later filling Michigan Street for about twelve years, and moved in 2019 to Howard Park and the Jefferson Bridge because of road construction. Produced by Downtown South Bend Inc., it has become downtown's largest annual event, more than 15,000 people on average and over 20,000 in strong years, and only artists from St. Joseph and seven neighbouring Michiana counties may show: the region exhibiting itself to itself. It is not city-funded, running on sponsors, fees and grants at about $40,000 a year. Notre Dame Magazine, surveying the city's summer, put Art Beat at the end of an outdoor arts season that begins with Leeper Park in June and runs through Shakespeare touring performances and Fridays by the Fountain concerts on the Morris's lawn. That calendar, assembled by a watercolor society, a downtown corporation, a university festival and a rescued palace, is South Bend's festival system: not one great festival like Fort Wayne's Three Rivers, but a season of medium ones, each with its own owner.

Sources:

1. St. Joe Valley Watercolor Society, society history (the society founded 1959 by Jozef Wrobel; the Leeper Park Art Fair begun by Wrobel in 1967; the third weekend of June; the single missed year, 2020).
2. South Bend Common Council resolution, 26 June 2017 (the fair's 50th anniversary; the 2015 Sunshine Artist rating of No. 70 among the top 200 fine art shows; some 120 fine artists a year).
3. Notre Dame Magazine, Takin' It to the Streets (Art Beat from 2003, a Leadership South Bend and Mishawaka group's idea; the September weeknight beginnings; downtown's largest annual event at more than 15,000 on average; Michiana-only eligibility; the Leeper Park tradition dating to the 1960s; the summer arts season with the Shakespeare touring company and Fridays by the Fountain).
4. Downtown South Bend Inc. and event listings; the Clay High School Colonial, fall 2022 (Art Beat on Michigan Street for about twelve years, the 2019 move to Howard Park and the Jefferson Bridge; not city-funded; about $40,000 a year from sponsors, fees and grants).