Ypsi Stories Episode 19: Shadow Art Fair – Ypsilanti’s Interactive Art Experience

Art & Music, Genealogy & Local History | May 19, 2023

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Shadow Art Fair was a local social, cultural, and interactive art experience that for many years in the ’00s and ’10s marked the peak of summer in July, while providing a warm, community-based, secular gathering each winter as well.

The images and videos on this page illustrate the story of the Shadow Art Fair. Click on the images to view the larger versions. Keep scrolling for videos and images that really take you inside!

More about our speakers

Mark Maynard

Mark Maynard lives with his family and his OCD in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he has a restaurant called Bellflower, and an incubator space called Landline Creative Labs. He is perhaps best known outside of Ypsilanti for Crimewave USA, the zine he’s published with his partner, Linette Lao, since 1993. He also puts out music one day a year with his band, The Monkey Power Trio, and blogs occasionally about politics, culture, and his life at markmaynard.com. He has a degree in American Studies from the University of Michigan, and probably should have stuck with historic archeology as a career, but he tries not to dwell on it.

Jennifer Yates

Jennifer Yates is full of sass and spirit. A quirky GenXer, she’s done a little bit of everything like driving tractors on a Louisiana rice farm, dropping out of beauty school, managing high-falutin’, corporate, software projects, owning a retail store, and being a VP at a food and beverage investment firm. Now, she’s a solopreneur in Business Operations, making work and business feel like magic. She used to play bass and scream in local bands. She loves traveling, writing, and eating snacks, although her favorite food is gravy. She lives in Ann Arbor with her husband, Zack, and their two dogs, Chiku Adorable and Belinda Potato.

Melissa Dettloff

Melissa Dettloff is a teaching artist based in Detroit, and she has been screen printing for over twenty years. Melissa makes colorful screen prints out of her home studio, which she shares with her greyhound, Bernadette.

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Photograph of Charles Pattison

Early Shadow Art Fair poster

The “monster” discussed in this episode. One example of an interactive art experience, with prizes inside the monster!

Inside the Shadow Art Fair

Click on the images below to see slideshows of posters advertising the shows and crowds enjoying the interactive art experience.

Posters through the years

Crowds enjoying the show

Shadow Art Fair in action

Watch the videos below to get a taste of what it looked and sounded like.

1 day. 40 artists. 9,000 gallons of beer. from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Attendees of the 2009 Shadow Art Fair describe the event using one word. Video courtesy of the Ypsilanti Citizen.

Video documentary of the Shadow Art Fair courtesy of modeldmedia on YouTube.

Read more about the Shadow Art Fair

Selected blog posts from markmaynard.com

Mark your calendars – The Winter Shadow Art Fair is going to be held on December first

Shadow Art Fair grants

Casting the shadow, and proselytizing for local business

Shadow Art Fair: July 10 (2010)

The Shadow Shuttle

Ypsilanti’s first annual Kinetic Sculpture Race

3 minute film smackdown at Saturday’s Shadow Art Fair (2011)

The performance lineup for Saturday’s Shadow Art Fair (2011)

The Shadow is Dead. Long Live the Shadow…. Please join us as we celebrate the last Shadow Art Fair on July 20 (2013)

Shadow Art Fair 2013

Goodbye from your friends at the Michigan Design Militia… We love you!

More news/info about the Shadow Art Fair

localwiki entry

Ypsilanti Shadow Art Fair set for Saturday (MLive, 2008)

Shadow art takes over Corner Brewery Saturday (Ypsilanti Citizen, 2008)

Group’s Shadow Art Fair remains small, but returnees haven’t see it all (MLive, 2009)

NIGHT & DAY: A Shadow Art Culture (Concentrate, 2009)

Ypsilanti’s Winter Shadow Art Fair to bring dancing gorillas, reindeer poop (Ypsilanti Citizen, 2009)

Ypsilanti Shadow Art Fair draws eclectic mix of art, ideas and shoppers (The Ann Arbor News, 2009)

Summer Shadow Art Fair connects to more of Ypsilanti (The Ann Arbor News, 2010)

New local art shows launched in the Shadow Art Fair’s absence (The Ann Arbor News, 2010)

What is in store for the Shadow Art Fair – this year and beyond? (The Ann Arbor News, 2012)

The Shadow Art Fair: Keeping Ypsi A Certain Size Of Weird (Concentrate, 2012)

Shadow Art Fair takes a final bow, then it is no more (The Ann Arbor News, 2013)

Corner Brewery hosts final run for Ypsilanti’s Shadow Art Fair (The Ann Arbor News, 2013)

Explore the Shadow Art Fair in the YDL catalog

Peruse The Local Collection at Michigan Avenue to find Zines from some of the Shadow Art Fair creators!

Maynard, Mark, et al. Hugs & Gumbo. 2008

Dettloff, Melissa. Drawings of Miguel: January – June 2013. 2013