Evanston’s annual outdoor YEA! (Young Evanston Artists) Festival, which has always taken place on this May weekend, is changing shape again, and its location as well. Instead of familiar Raymond Park, it will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Saturday, May 18, at 727 Main St., a city parking lot between Sherman Avenue and the train tracks.
Hope Washinushi, executive director of YEA! – an organization started by Evanstonian Harvey Pranian – has taken the position of studio manager with the Open Studio Project on Sherman Avenue. As such, and with the approval of the YEA! board, she is in the process of merging YEA! with OSP.
On its website, OSP states that “our mission is to bring art directly to individuals for personal growth, social emotional learning and community well-being.”
Open Studio Project has its office, classroom and gallery space at 901-903 Sherman Ave., but its “back doors” open onto the city parking lot that faces Main Street, so the new event location is, appropriately, “next door.”
The festival will be somewhat smaller this year, and without private or parochial schools, but that will reduce the cost of mounting the event. There will be hands-on art activities alongside visual and multimedia arts. Participants include the Shorefront Legacy Center, Let’s Craft It, the Waste Shed Evanston, the Justin Wynn Fund, Imaginary Games, Booked and the Music Conservatory.
In 2020 the festival was canceled due to COVID. In 2021, student work was displayed in storefront windows along the Main-Dempster Mile. And in 2022 there was no YEA! at all, and last year it was in Raymond Park. This year marks its return to a local business district.
“So for this year,” Washinushi wrote in an email to the RoundTable, “it was easier to take on the task of working with D65 schools and sponsoring an art exhibition [with them] in the parking lot on Main St. I am hopeful that by 2025 we will be back at Raymond Park in full swing, with all the schools.
“Also, by bringing the event here on Main St., it will help support our local businesses that are affected by the construction going on. Which, by the way, is horrible! But the show will go on!”
Food vendors for the event include Soul & Smoke, La Principal and Community Creamery.
“It will be a wonderful event despite the Main St. construction. People can park around the neighborhood or park at Nichols Middle School only 1½ blocks away,” said Washinushi.
Supporters include the Evanston Community Foundation, the PTA Equity Project, the Main-Dempster Mile and Evanston/Skokie School District 65.
YEA! shifts to Main Street, combining with Open Studio Project is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.