Speed painting competition, drum circle part of two-day Art Splash in downtown Cheboygan

CHEBOYGAN — Cheboygan hosted one of its annual art fair events downtown on Saturday and Sunday.

That event was Art Splash, an annual juried art and makers festival that featured a painting competition, a drum circle and a splash quartet on Saturday.

The big contest on Saturday was Splash Down, a speed painting competition that started at noon and saw 10 artists paint for 30 minutes. While that event was going on, the Pulse Quartet played music for those in attendance. Shanti Bennett took first place in the contest while Christina Nola was second.

“We had an art festival in town years ago and it sort of died out, so we wanted to restart it and make it fresh and new, and we came up with the name ‘Art Splash’ to kind of represent the whole water that surrounds the town,” said Sherie Gekiere, a festival organizer who was also a part of Saturday’s painting competition. “It’s sort of new, yet again, it’s something that we had previously.”

Previously, the festival was held at Cheboygan’s Festival Square and the Ice Pavilion, but this year’s location was back downtown, near Festival Square.

“We decided to have it (in the new location) because we don’t want to stop the farmers market. It's such a great thing for our town, and this way people can go to both at the same time,” Gekiere said.

In addition to the Splash Down competition, some participated in the drum circle, and there were also fine art booths and makers/crafters booths to look at.

As for Sunday, a wool spinning demonstration took place in the morning. The festival concluded at 4 p.m.

"This is the first year it’s been called 'Art Splash',” Gekiere said. “We are going to grow as we go on, but we want to make sure we do it and we do it well and keep expanding on that. The whole point is to splash the town with art.”

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Art Splash festival provides competition, fun in downtown Cheboygan