AURORA | Clay is a deceptively complex medium. The artistic possibilities of the stuff go far beyond throwing a pot on a wheel — they range from the functional to the expressive, from the casual to the devotional.
That kind of creative freedom hooked Walt Weinberg on the medium in the early 1970s and has kept him working in clay ever since. Weinberg, the owner of the Sunrise Artworks gallery on Florence Street in the Aurora Arts District, compares the feel of working in clay to “magic”; he insists that he’s constantly learning new methods and forms of expression with material pulled from the ground.
“You can make things that are utilitarian, and it was really easy to experiment. It’s just dirt, and it’s cheap, and if you mess something up, you can just throw it back together,” Weinberg said. “It’s different from any other art form. With clay, you can do anything with it. You can make it look like anything, with glazes and materials … Years ago, there was a guy making pieces of cake out of clay. It’s just a wonderful medium to work in.”
The many forms and uses of the clay will be a central part of the Aurora Arts Festival planned for June 9, as artists, business owners and other officials from the arts district in Original Aurora work to make the event an annual tradition. Now in its second year, the festival, officially dubbed “From the Earth,” will feature live music, free family events and food vendors along the district’s 16-block stretch on East Colfax Avenue.
But organizers from the Aurora Arts District insist that the event won’t be a random celebration. Officials from the nonprofit organization — which was officially designated as an “emerging arts district” by the state earlier this year — say that the festival will highlight the work of local and guest artists who specialize in clay and other materials pulled “from the earth.” The free event will include live pottery demonstrations by Weinberg and guest artists Molly Jones and Downtown Aurora Visual Arts gallery alum Alberto Veronica — the artisans will work with fresh clay on wheels set up on the street.
“Each year, we’re trying to think of a different theme from the arts,” Weinberg said. “It’s having art as part of the community and letting people see what’s going on. I think people tend to be afraid of artists for some reason — I don’t know what it is.”
He speaks from experience. Weinberg worked in galleries in Estes Park and Denver’s Santa Fe Arts District before moving to Aurora 15 years ago, and he says reaching out to the larger community has always been a challenge. The gallery owners, artists and performers in Aurora’s native arts district have also faced a persistent reputation problem since the movement to rebrand the area on East Colfax Avenue started in earnest about 10 years ago. Getting visitors from elsewhere in the metro area to visit the district has always meant getting over biases about the safety of the neighborhood.
“I think we’re always going to fight that,” said Crystal Gardner, president of the Aurora Arts District, pointing to recent campaigns to create new lighting schemes and signs along the strip. “It’s about redevelopment and making the place look different. I think that’s one of the things that’s going to change that perception.”
But the more important step is getting new visitors to see the galleries, theaters and other amenities in north Aurora. That’s one of the major missions of the relatively young annual festival. Like last year’s “Fire Arts Festival,” an event that featured liquid metal in the form of iron pours, the stress this year will be on the immediate and interactive aspects of working with clay.
But the day will also have all the features of a more general arts festival, with musical performances by bands like Je T’aime, the Charles Milo Trio and the Strings & Steel Band, prize drawings from the Aurora Fox theater and a petting zoo.
“I think our notoriety is changing because we were named an ‘emerging arts district,’” said Crystal Gardner, president of the Aurora Arts District. “The more people you have, the more people will come back. Once they’re down here, they see that it can be a fun place.”
This year, part of that push will come the day before the official festival, Gardner said. On the second Friday of June, the day normally reserved for the district’s monthly art walk, local students will work on a public mural near Fletcher Plaza. The House of Flowers, the Downtown Aurora Visual Arts gallery and other buildings will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. on June 8, and a free film will be shown on the lawn at Fletcher Plaza as part of the Flicks on the Fax Summer Film Series.
“One thing we were doing differently this year is teaming up with some nonprofits on our second Fridays. We’ll have kids out here doing a mural in Fletcher Plaza,” Gardner said. “We’ve teamed up with the Chamber, Visit Aurora and we are focus on getting visitors from outside of Aurora. We always want to be local, our claim to fame is to be in Aurora, but we hope others will consider us a destination.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707
The Aurora Arts Festival “From the Earth” will take place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 9 on East Colfax Avenue between Dayton and Elmira Streets. Admission is free. Information: auroraartsdistrict.com. The “Second Friday” event featuring open galleries, a public mural painting and a free film as part of the Flicks on the Fax Summer Film Series will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. on June 8 at Fletcher Plaza, 9898 E. Colfax Ave.