2020 Bluff Park Art Show canceled after 56 straight years

The Bluff Park Art Show, which has been held on the first Saturday in October for 56 straight years, will not take place this year.

The beloved juried art show was scheduled for Oct. 3, but has become yet another event that has had to be canceled due to COVID-19.

The Bluff Park Art Association struggled with the decision before finally deciding to call this year’s show off, board member and spokeswoman Heather Skaggs said.

“From a historical perspective, this was a really tough decision,” Skaggs said. “We really hated to do it.”

Board members have known for some time that the status of the show was questionable because they were struggling to get enough artists to sign up, Skaggs said.

There normally are 120 to 140 artists in the show in the park by the Bluff Park Community Center, Skaggs said. “We have to have at least 100 to make the show work monetarily,” she said.

Artists, concerned about the spread of COVID-19, the health impact for themselves and others, and the question of whether the crowd would be large enough to make it worth their while, were slower to sign up this year. The application deadline was extended twice, from June 15 to June 29 and then to July 15.

Eventually, there were enough artists to make the show work financially, but there still were concerns about conducting the show safely and whether it could be pulled off with social distancing, Skaggs said.

One big concern was getting the 10,000 or so estimated people who usually attend back and forth between parking areas and the park where the show is held. Normally, school buses are used as shuttles, but people would have to be spaced out more than usual, and buses would have to be sanitized between trips.

Another concern was spacing at the show itself. Normally, booths are lined up right up against each other. Organizers considered moving the show to the Hoover Metropolitan Complex to spread artists out more, but in the end “we all felt the best thing to do for everybody was to call the show off and look at doing other things,” Skaggs said.

The Bluff Park Art Association is considering having some type of event to display its permanent collection, which includes the winning artwork from each year’s show. Some of it is on display in public buildings such as the Hoover Public Library and schools, but other pieces are in storage, Skaggs said.

No decision has yet been made about an alternative event. For updates, visit the Bluff Park Art Association Facebook page.