
Art Festival in East Lansing | Curious About Michigan
5/15/2026 | 5m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
Annabel and Will are curious about an art festival in East Lansing, Michigan.
Annabel and Will are curious about an art festival in East Lansing, Michigan. They explore the event, meet artists, and participate in a community art project!
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Curious About Michigan is a local public television program presented by WKAR

Art Festival in East Lansing | Curious About Michigan
5/15/2026 | 5m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
Annabel and Will are curious about an art festival in East Lansing, Michigan. They explore the event, meet artists, and participate in a community art project!
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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I'm Will.
And I'm Annabelle.
And today we're here at the East Lansing Art Festival.
Let's go talk to some artists and see what they like to do.
(music) Hello welcome to the East Lansing Art Festival.
Hi.
So I have a question.
How many artist typically come to this festival?
We actually have over 200 artists here today.
Wow, that's really cool.
We have everything from lik classic paintings to ceramics.
Really cool photography.
Some functional pieces too like vaces and baskets to take home.
And also, we have demonstrations going on all day.
So you can actually go see how the art is made.
Oh, cool.
How long has this festival been running?
This is our 62nd year o the East Lansing Art Festival.
I know we look forward to it every year.
Awesome.
Awesome thank you guys so much.
Yeah thank you guys so much.
(music) This is so cool.
Yeah.
Look at like the layers.
Its like solid on the bottom but then it becomes more clear as you go towards the top.
And look at all of the colors here.
Yeah.
So what kind of stuff do you do here?
Woodworking.
Mainly live edge with some epoxy resin.
all these are natural occurrences in the wood.
And I clean them all out and I mix epoxy and have different colored pigments and fill it in just for a little splash of color.
I harvest the trees myself and saw them and dry them.
So when it gets to that point, when it's ready to work I can do a couple dining tables a week.
Typically, the smaller tables, I can do a lot more.
When did you start doing woodworking?
I've had sawmills and been woodworking for longer than you've been alive.
About 25-30 years probably.
But I've been doing it full time for 12 years.
Cool.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
(music) Me and Will were walking around the festival and saw this cool community art project.
Community weaving.
Let's go check it out!
Oh I like this one.
It goes from like orange to green.
So.
Yeah, that's really cool.
Oh its long though.
This one looks like a Spartan kind of theme so Im going to try to and do this one.
I don't even know where to start.
(music) This is fun.
Yeah.
It really is.
Oh it got caught.
Oh, no.
There we go.
I never thought to do this weaving before, but it's really cool.
Yeah.
Especially with all of the recycled material and stuff.
Yeah.
Totally.
(music) (music) Hi.
I'm Jill.
So what kind of art do you make?
I do ceramics, mostly functional ware Like cups, bowls, plates, and vases.
It takes about, two week for a final product like this.
Because you have to throw it o the wheel, wait for it to dry, then you bisque fire it, and then you glaze it, and then you have to fire it again.
I've been experimenting with just, like, adding different glazes.
I've been really happy with how this turned out.
It's cool.
Yeah.
What's your favorite like thing to make with these ceramics?
My favorite thing to make are definitely mugs.
I love just drinking like coffee so I love having mugs o differerent sizes and varieties.
(music) Hi.
I'm the artist here so thank you for coming in and looking at my work.
What kind of materials do you use here?
I use crumpled up magazines.
So that painting, there's crumpled up magazines that I sewed together and glued to the canvas.
I collect a lot of shee music books, things like that.
And, I pattern them with paint and then I'll attach them onto the canvas.
Where did you get your inspiration?
So I work from reference photos of things that I've taken pictures of.
What is your favorite piece of art in all of these?
This one.
This one right here.
That is from an old picture of my grandmother.
I loved her body language.
I loved what she was wearing and her clothes.
And then I put it on swirled paper and I marbled the paper before I painted it.
I like the stories that a photo can tell.
And then you take it in a painting and you can transform it into whatever you want.
Thats really cool.
Thank you.
(music) (music) We had so much fun and learned so much at the East Lansing Art Festival.
The artists were so nice and we were so impressed with their talents.
I think we should definitely try making some art.
Absolutely.
See you next time.
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