The 27th annual American School Art Fest — a nonprofit project conceived as a service to the general and artistic community — gets under way next weekend with an elegant auction at Guadalajara’s Club de Industriales Friday evening, where veteran martillero Paco de la Peña will serve as the art festival’s bid caller for his 27th year.
That kickoff event Friday, November 6, 7 p.m., — there is no entrance fee, but formal attire is required — is followed by the main event Saturday at the school from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. There, 47 artists will exhibit and sell their work in a leisurely atmosphere on the school soccer field under a large tent, while an array of international food and local entertainment line the field’s periphery. Like Friday’s formal auction, entrance to the Saturday Art Fest is free.
Children’s art workshops will also be held Saturday for a minimal materials fee, along with an exhibit of the artwork of American School students of all ages, from preschool to high school. A beautiful catalog that shows the work to be auctioned includes the student work, which will not be for sale.
This year’s Art Fest boasts some big names, among them internationally acclaimed sculptor/painter Alejandro Colunga and renowned painter/draftsman Javier Arévalo, both from Guadalajara. Most of the artists in the show are painters or sculptors but one fiber artist and two photographers are included, as well as printmakers and more.
The majority of the artists are well established, with the possible exception of one of this year’s featured artists, Olga Zuno. This twenty-something painter used to attend the American School and now devotes herself to acrylic painting as she carries out university studies in industrial design at the Guadalajara campus of Tec de Monterrey, making her an example of what David McGrath, the school’s director general, holds out as a primary focus of the institution: getting students to find a purpose in life and pursue it, rather than simply focusing on earning money.
This year’s other featured artist, well known sculptor Diego Martínez Negrete, works with young people in the school’s art program.
Art Fest 2015. Art auction: Friday, November 6, 7 p.m. to midnight, Club de Industriales, Avenida Francisco Javier Gamboa 2, near Centro Magno, formal attire required, children not permitted. Outdoor art fair: Saturday, November 7, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the American School, Colomos 2100, on the west side of Guadalajara near the intersection of Lopez Mateos and Americas.