Eugene weekly., July 07, 2011, Page 14, Image 14

BLOOMING ARTISTS
OCF Youth Booth craft guild nurtures artistic expression
BY VANESSA SALVIA
W
hile much of the scenery at the Oregon
Country Fair looks like it sprouted magically
from the forest fl oor, a surprising amount
of intention and purpose goes into creating
it. Even civil disobedience, it could be said,
has its place in creating the environment you
experience there.
Though she now lives in Trabuco Canyon, Calif., Sandra
Brown returns to Eugene each summer for Fair. Brown is
the craft inventory coordinator of the Youth Booth. Twenty-
fi ve years ago, when she was 21, she went to the Fair for the
fi rst time with friends who had a booth. She operated Red
Tail Farm, growing organic produce, and eventually started
working with and trading produce to the kitchen crew. At that
time, under the big oak tree along the Kids Loop was a little
rickety booth affectionately known as “the lemonade stand.”
“It was short and it had windows that faced the path right
in front of the Kids Loop playground,” recalls Brown. Her
two boys, Cerin and Cory — along with some other kids they
knew — became inspired to clean up the little shack and start
using it like it was their own booth
The next year, 8-year-old Cerin found an old mirror and
threw it out of the upstairs window of their barn at home. “He
said he wanted to make pocketbook-sized mirrors surrounded
with Fimo clay and sell them at the Country Fair,” Brown
says. “I said not to throw mirrors around! If that was what
he wanted to do we would go to the art store.” At that year’s
Fair, Cerin and Cory brought their mirrors and sold them out
of that tiny shed, along with a handful of other kids who had
brought items.
Brown became the “booth parent,” sitting with the kids
while they sold their crafts. But one day, craft inventory
pathrovers realized the kids were selling art at a booth that
had not been juried in by the OCF board, and told them to
pack up and leave.
“The kids started to get upset,” Brown remembers. “They
didn’t know what to do. One of the kids started crying and
yelling. I said, ‘You don’t have to leave, you don’t have to get
upset and get belligerent. This is civil disobedience. You can
tell them, ‘I believe I have a right as a child whose parents
work at the fair to sell a craft, and this is the kids’ area and I
believe you’re wrong and I’m going to stay.’
“So the kids looked at them and said, ‘We’re going
to stay,’” Brown continues, “and they put their stuff back.
Then the craft inventory people got on their radios and said,
‘We’ve got a problem! These kids aren’t leaving and they’ve
got an adult leader who says they don’t have to leave.’”
The kids were allowed to continue using the booth that
year, but were told they had to get approval from the board
to return. At their presentation to the board, many of the kids
came along to show support and most wrote letters explaining
why they thought the booth was a good idea.
In 2000, the Youth Booth was given offi cial approval.
Brown says she understood that OCF expected some kind of
supervision and rules to follow, as well as a record of what
was taking place at the booth. Kids were putting out blankets
and selling things like beer caps as the public walked by. “That
wasn’t cool,” she says, “so I think the Fair was legitimately
trying to make it not look like vagrant kids selling garbage.”
Crafts made by kids to sell
at the Youth Booth
People at the board meeting said that Brown was
corrupting the kids by turning them into “little capitalists.”
Brown strongly disagreed. “It’s part of what they learn,
that they have to buy art supplies and think about their
time and the amount of value that’s in their art. One of the
things I help them do is set a price for their art,” she says.
“This is an art fair and the kids want to express themselves.
They’re basically making money to spend at the fair, so
they can go out and buy themselves a kaleidoscope or a
burrito. We are an alternative community, and we have
to learn how to make money and have some kind of
legitimacy and income, and some of us are trying to do
that through art. For the kids, it’s part of learning how to
be artists.”
Over the years, the booth has provided space for kids
ranging in age from 4 to 18. The younger ones might sell
crayon drawings or do facepainting, some kids have written
poetry or offered palm readings, while others have made
magnets decorated with a wood-burning tool. “Simple
things,” says Brown. “All kinds of jewelry. Two brothers
used to collect rocks and tumble them to polish them.”
For kids whose parents have a Fair booth, there is some
infrastructure allowing them to take over the booth from their
parents, or if they want to sell a different craft they can be
juried in as a returning — rather than a new — crafter. None
of this is available to kids whose parents are not crafters
but who contribute on work crews. By becoming part of
the Youth Booth, kids turning 18 have an opportunity to be
considered a returning crafter.
Brown never knows how many kids will show up
each year or what they will bring. She decorates the
space, provides shade and makes sure the kids are always
supervised. An average of 90 kids use the booth every year
— some young ones may only hang out an hour or so at a
time. Only twice has Brown nixed crafts that kids wanted
to sell — one no-no was pipes, and another was “boffers,”
or sticks wrapped in foam used as mock weapons.
Brown’s boys, Cerin and Cory — who were there at
the booth’s inception — are now in their 20s and can’t sell
their own art anymore. These days they help supervise
the booth and are poised to take it over from their mother.
“They’re starting to think of what they might want to do
that’s different,” Brown says. “They’re thinking about
having a tiny stage in the back and inviting kids to play
music there for ambience.”
Brown sees other opportunities and experiences that the
booth provides. Kids have to learn to work through emotions
such as greed or envy, bring their supplies from home, manage
their time and money, and share their experiences with their
peers, while at the same time helping younger kids follow in
their footsteps. All of this ultimately builds their character as
a part of a community that values expression and freedom.
A year after being accepted by the board, the old
lemonade stand was torn down and replaced by a new booth
with a long counter to share, a good-sized bench to sit on
and a wooden sun backdrop. As the “youth crafts guild”
became more popular, the booth was relocated to a bigger
space across the path. Visit the Youth Booth at L78.
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