Jay Dockendorf
A neighborhood’s annual celebration of “fringe” arts and educational institutions was going strong — until summer showers scattered merrymakers and washed away the festival’s traditional chalk mural.
The 15th annual Audubon Arts on the Edge street fair Saturday offered an array of activities and performances for kids and their parents. Bobbi Griffith, coordinator of the festival, estimated that 1,000 people attended.
“Until 3:15, it was great,” she said, referring to a short-lived downpour that temporarily brought the fun to a halt. “But it came back.” (Click on the play arrow to watch what happened.)
Neighborhood Music School, Pups without Partners, The Yale Peabody Museum, soon-to-open Salon Ivanova, and many had booths and provided activities for kids and adults.
Jay Dockendorf Photo
“Have Bone Will Travel”, a group with the Yale School of Nursing, displayed a pair of pigs’ lungs — one healthy, one blackened by simulated cigarette smoking — to represent the ill effects of smoking on the human body.
Around 2:30 pm Jessie, a large Great Dane, strolled through the festival on a leash held by no one. Workers at the nearby Pups without Partners chased down her owner, complaining that their greyhounds were unnerved.
“That dog is big enough to have its own dog,” quipped a passerby.
Audubon Arts on the Edge began in 1996 as a counterpart to the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, said Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark,
A city grant of “between $1,000 and $2,500” and donations from local businesses funded the event, the alderwoman said.
Organizer Griffith credited the Peruvian folk dance group Tusuykusin Peru with reviving the festival after the rain.
Music educator Baba Coleman of the Neighborhood Music School led the drum circle that closed the event.
I'm sure it was the responsible dog people of Pups Without Partners who were unnerved by a loose dog at an event like this. The organizers were right to insist leash laws be obeyed. And who was cleaning up after Jessie while he was on his own?