Pamela Lannom’s article with regard to the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival which took place on June 1 and 2 was engaging and informative, with many good quotes from the artists themselves. Unfortunately, after reading it, one would have no idea that an extremely loud anti-Israeli protest disrupted the normal peace and tranquility of the event for almost two hours of the six that the show was open on Sunday.
While Ms. Lannom mentioned the cicadas buzzing and the rain on Saturday, saying neither deterred art show attendees, she left out the protesters staged on the Village Hall lawn in front of Burlington Park who were using bull horns to scream their message in angry voices which drown out conversations between the artists and their potential customers. The artists along Chicago Avenue were a captive audience who could not escape the deafening sound.
I personally spoke with several of the artists as they were packing up on Sunday after the show. Every one of them told me the protests adversely affected their sales and rattled them emotionally. They were not to blame for the protesters’ grievances, yet they are the ones who were made to pay the price (literally) in their loss of sales. Hopefully the Village of Hinsdale can come up with a contingency plan next year (perhaps relocating any protesters?) so that we who love the art fair and the artists who make it happen can enjoy this special event in peace once again. — Laura Nelson, La Grange
Editor’s note: Photos and an article
on the protest ran on Page 3
the day Lannom’s article ran.
