Salem Art Fair brings 200 artists to Bush's Pasture Park Sept. 11

The 77th Salem Art Fair & Festival opens Friday, Sept. 11, at Bush's Pasture Park with more than 200 juried artists. The three-day fair runs through Sunday, Sept. 13.

The fair, organized by the Salem Art Association, fills the park with artist booths, live music, a beer-and-wine garden, food vendors and a Kids' Court. Artist booths open at 10 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with entertainment running until 9 p.m. both nights. Sunday hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for everything.

Fourteen of this year's exhibitors are Salem locals, Press Play Salem reported. Among them: Samuel Hoskins, a figurative oil painter born in Salem and trained at The Florence Academy of Art in Italy, returns to booth E21 after winning Best 2D Painting at the 2024 fair. Leah Borden, an emerging artist at booth B8, blends watercolor with digital processing to create abstract work.

Armitage wINKs works in scratchboard and ink on clay-board at booth A20, one of just two exhibitors in the drawing category.

Visitors can also watch artist Eric Tautkus spend all three days creating an 8-by-12-foot floral mural with spray paint, a live work-in-progress that evolves from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon.

The entertainment schedule shifts daily. Friday's lineup closes with blues musician Joel Astley at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday features the Cherry City Cloggers, the Ventus Woodwind Quintet and That Other Band, a funk and R&B group, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday wraps with Son de Cuba playing Latin music from 4 to 5 p.m.

Kids' Court, in the northwest corner near Bush Barn Art Center, offers free activities all weekend: nature prints, button-making, an instrument petting zoo and a three-foot-tall cardboard maze filled with artwork and hidden squirrels.

A Children's Parade starts Saturday at 10 a.m., with lineup at 9:30 a.m. Kids in the parade and one accompanying adult get in free.

Food options include Fitts Seafood, Hap Restaurant, La Jitana and Paella Del Zorro.

No outside food or drink is allowed. Pets are not permitted, though service dogs are welcome. No ATMs are on-site. Picnic chairs and blankets are welcome.

Daily admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors 55 and older and veterans, and $5 for teens 13 to 17. Children 12 and under enter free. Three-day passes run $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and veterans, and $10 for teens. Salem Art Association members and holders of Oregon Health Plan (OHP) or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cards also get in free, according to the fair's information page.

Before the fair opens, an Opening Night Party takes place Thursday, Sept. 10, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Miller and Bush streets entrance. Tickets are $35 for SAA members and $40 for the general public and must be purchased by Wednesday, Sept. 9. The party sold out last year. Dinner comes from La Jitana, beer from Conversion Brewery and wine from Bryn Mawr Vineyards, with music by True North starting at 6:30 p.m.

The Salem Art Association is at 600 Mission St. SE. More details are at salemart.org.

Upcoming Salem events: