Street fairs may have gone by the wayside in some towns and cities. But the Downtown Hammond Council and Ray Garcia, owner of Eat restaurant, want to bring back those old time celebrations — with an updated focus.
Art on the Avenue made its debut in downtown Hammond on a recent Saturday.
“We want to promote all the arts (with this street festival) — culinary, visual, audio, everything,” said Garcia, an area businessman who is renovating the former F.W. Woolworth five-and-dime store for his Eat restaurant, which borders Hohman Avenue and Fayette Street. “This event is a great opportunity to do this.”
Visitors to the inaugural street festival found those art styles displayed in many forms along three blocks of Fayette Street, east of Hohman Avenue, which was closed to car traffic.
Vendors displaying pictures, paintings and sculptures were available for customers, as were food vendors. Local bands provided music.
Local artists and friends Ishmael Muhammad Nieves and Felix Maldanado kept busy as they demonstrated “live” post-modernistic hip-hop graffiti-style painting.
Using dozens of colorful spray paint cans, the pair created a six-panel mural on the north side of Garcia’s building.
“This is a great way to introduce people to our art form,” Maldanado said.
More Top Picks Best Field Dressing Kits
Nieves agreed, and added, “This type of art has been around a long time. It began in the late 1950s. It started with teenagers expressing their thoughts and issues in various ways.”
But it has evolved over the years and is becoming more accepted, the pair agreed, as they worked on their colorful mural, which depicts modern issues.
A crowd gathered to watch the project unfold.
“I always thought that spray painting was such a negative thing — and in some cases, it still is when it portrays gang symbols and profanity,” said Jerri Lorman of Merrillville. “But this (mural) is beautiful — and it tells a story too.”
Jenifer and Kyle Johnson from Calumet City, Ill., have always lived near the Indiana/Illinois state line, which is located a stone’s throw from downtown Hammond.
“We always shopped down here. It was the place to be when I was growing up,” Jennifer said of downtown Hammond, as she browsed through items designed by local artist Sophia Rapata. “We all know things have changed — it will never be like before — but people are starting to come back. There’s the Towle Theater and the Paul Henry Art Gallery, for instance. And I hear there’s many more fun things in the works.”
Kevin Culver of Hammond is serving a summer internship with the Downtown Hammond Council.
“This organization is doing a great job of revitalizing the downtown area,” the Ivy Tech student said. “This (street fair) is one sure way to bring people here to see the changes.”
And one of those changes will include Garcia’s new Eat restaurant.
Garcia purchase the old Woolworth structure a few years ago and has been rejuvenating it into a restaurant and bar. A completion date has not been set.
During the Art on the Avenue event, visitors were allowed inside the first floor of the three-story building built in the 1920s, and which has been vacant for many decades.
Since the weather outside was threatening rain, Garcia choose to bring the street entertainment (bands) and food vendors inside his eatery.
“I can’t believe how nice this is,” said Lindsey Grant of Hammond, as she and her friends sat at a modern dark wood table and chairs and glanced around the tastefully redone interior in-the-works. “I can’t wait until they open this to the public. Eat is a perfect name for this restaurant.”
The second and third floors of the building aren’t complete yet, as Garcia cited time constraints (he also manages another local restaurant) but hopes that will come in the near future.
Once a hub of activity, the former five-and-dime store sold everything from personal care items to plumbing supplies and goldfish.
Garcia wants to make Art on the Avenue an annual event, which will again showcase the many genres of artistic talent found in Northwest Indiana.
The six-panel mural on the north side of his building also will change each year during the street fair, reflecting modern issues or thoughts of the day.
Sue Ellen Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.