The Cherrywood Art Fair turns 15
Since 2002, the fair has provided a showcase and a market for local artists
Mr. Wiz’ Wands demonstrates how his handmade bubble makers work during the 2017 Cherrywood Art Fair at Maplewood Elementary School on Saturday, Dec. 9. Mr. Wiz and his wife dedicate themselves to spreading joy through their work. “We are absolutely thrilled to participate in the fair! The Little Big Artist program is truly amazing,” Mrs. Wiz said. “Maybe next year we’ll get to mentor.” Photo by Sophia Shampton.
LITTLE ARTIST, BIG HEART
SMILES (AND CLIENTS) ABOUND
BOWTIES, FUN TIMES
BUBBLE BUDS
WICK IT GOOD
PUPPY LOVE
CURLY FRY CURLS UP
ALL TUCKERED OUT
SILENT AUCTION, NOISY TURNOUT
BEE HAPPY
LITTLE ARTIST, BIG HEART
SMILES (AND CLIENTS) ABOUND
BOWTIES, FUN TIMES
BUBBLE BUDS
WICK IT GOOD
PUPPY LOVE
CURLY FRY CURLS UP
ALL TUCKERED OUT
SILENT AUCTION, NOISY TURNOUT
BEE HAPPY
The 15th annual Cherrywood Art Fair took place on Saturday, Dec. 9, with customers flooding into Maplewood Elementary School as soon as the doors opened. The Fair, which debuted in 2002, began as a small nonprofit event to support local Austin artists and soon paired up with the newly formed nonprofit corporation, Chula League; in 2009, the proceeds of the fair were used to fund Chula’s Little Artist Big Artist program and have been designated for that purpose ever since.
Photojournalist Sophia Shampton covered the fair for Macjournalism. If the story of Curly Fry doesn’t make your eyes well up, well then you are made of tougher stuff than we are. We are pleased to share Sophia’s photo story here as the second installment in our weekly Tuesday Top 10 series.
![A PRIDE-FUL WEEK OF CELEBRATION:
As part of AISDs week-long celebration of PRIDE, students of the McCallum Spectrum Club worked to create a week full of activities, prizes and helping hands to support the schools LGBTQ+ community. The club is widely available for anyone to join, and specializes in creating a safe space for students to share and give advice. While Pride month itself isn’t until June, AISD designates one week in March to celebrate and commemorate the importance of this part of the student body.
As part of the week of festivities, the club held a booth in the front hall handing out pride stickers, pins and merch to passers by. For junior Zane Joly, the booth idea was brought up as a way for students to engage with one another, and connect with the community.
“I call out to people in the halls, ‘hey, do you want stickers?’” Joly said. “We just give out free pride stickers and sometimes other free pride merch to the students of Macallum because everybody likes pride stickers.”
While the week itself is packed with a variety of different activities, the overall goal is to bring students closer together and create a safer environment for self expression at McCallum.
“The idea for the student panel largely came from the black [history] student panel that is done during Black History Month,” Joly said. “And the idea for giving out free stuff was developed at Spectrum last year.”
Joly is not only a member of the Spectrum club, but also holds a leadership position giving them a more hands-on role with the projects and Pride Week activities.
“McCallum has a very high queer population,” Joly said. “I think Its nice that we get a chance to celebrate Pride because Pride Month is during the summer, and I think its just a nice thing for the community and getting to just celebrate it.”
While the merch table at lunch was only a small part of the numerous parts of McCallum’s Pride week, for Joly this small impact made all the difference.
“The purpose of Pride is to make people not feel alone and to make them feel safe,” Joly said. “The goal is [to make people] happy about a part of themselves that theyre often conditioned to not feel good about.”
Caption by Chloe Lewcock. Photo by Shila Gill.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/53597258192_6e7168d8ae_o-1-600x338.jpg)
![BACKGROUND IN THE BUSINESS: Dressed by junior designer Kaitlyn Gerrie, senior Chamila Muñoz took to the “Dreamland” runway this past weekend. While it was her first time participating in the McCallum fashion show, Muñoz isn’t new to the modeling world.
I modeled here and there when I was a lot younger, maybe five or six [years old] for some jewelry brands and small businesses, but not much in recent years,” Muñoz said.
Muñoz had hoped to participate in last year’s show but couldn’t due to scheduling conflicts. For her senior year, though, she couldn’t let the opportunity pass her by.
“It’s [modeling] something I haven’t done in a while so I was excited to step out of my comfort zone in a way,” Muñoz said. “I always love trying new things and being able to show off designs of my schoolmates is such an honor.”
The preparation process for the show was hectic, leaving the final reveal of Gerrie’s design until days before the show, but the moment Muñoz tried on the outfit, all the stress for both designer and model melted away.
“I didn’t get to try on my outfit until the day before, but the look on Kaitlyn’s face when she saw what she had worked so hard to make actually on a model was just so special,” Muñoz said. “I know it meant so much to her. But then she handed me a blindfold and told me I’d be walking with it on, so that was pretty wild.”
Caption by Francie Wilhelm.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/53535098892_130167352f_o-600x400.jpg)
