JULY 10, 2026 ANN ARBOR ART FAIR WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 The Ann Arbor Art Fair is one of the largest art fairs in America. It has consistently ranked as one of the best in the nation. It is the largest juried art fair in the United States. From 1994 to 2024, USA Today ranked the Ann Arbor Art Fair as the second-best art fair in the nation. There are actually three fairs: The Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Original; The Guild’s Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair; and the Ann Arbor State Street District Art Fair. The Ann Arbor Art Fair started around 1960. It is one of the oldest summer street art fairs in America. This outdoor street festival spans about 30 city blocks within downtown and the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus. In May 2024, Ms. Karen Delhey, Executive Director of the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair, told Detroit News reporter Ms. Samin Hassan, “I’ve been with the Ann Arbor Art Fair for 18 years now, and each year it just keeps getting bigger and better.” With visitors from Michigan, Canada, Europe and several states in the nation, there are estimates of more than 500,000 people in attendance. Between July 16 (Thursday) and July 18 (Saturday) this year, we should expect about 1,000 juried artists to participate in the Summer Street Art Fair. My past experiences I have attended and participated in several summer art fairs in Ann Arbor. I have accumulated so many memories that can last a lifetime. I have done volunteering for homeless advocacy and the Groundcover newspaper between Liberty and Division Streets. That section between Division Street and Fifth Street across Liberty Street is for Washtenaw-based nonprofit organizations. I have done lots of street walking, chatting with artists and art fair visitors while attempting to sell Groundcover newspapers. I have done large scale publicity in order to introduce faraway visitors and many Washtenaw County residents to our community engagement news and information. Those efforts have captured the interest of Art Fair visitors and their willingness to buy newspapers. I have been able to meet with Summer Art Fair visitors from France, Belgium, Germany and Canada. Our conversations sparked instant affection and a desire for friendships. In my earlier experiences, I visited hundreds of booths and attempted to describe some of the artwork including photography in my own words. In one display booth in front of Rackham Building, I saw photographs from France, Italy, Spain and Greece on display. Based on my experiences in western and southern Europe, I started to talk about the displays inside and outside the booth. Several art-lovers walked by and stopped to hear my vocal and passionate descriptions. Some of them clapped their hands when I stopped and was about to walk away. I did not know that the artist who rented the booth (who comes from Chicago) and his wife listened to me and clapped. So when I left and was heading to the fountain at Ingalls Mall, the photographer/artist’s wife ran after me. She stopped me, almost out of breath from the summer heat. She said, “My husband is the photographer. He asked me to run after you and bring you back to the photographic booth.” When the two of us finally saw her husband, he thanked me for attracting a lot of visitors to their booth. He also wanted me to do a recording of my voice describing the photographs from Europe. I did, and was ready to walk away when the wife gave me their business cards and invited me to their art and photographic studio on the south side of Chicago. She also gave me a copy of her book titled, “Colorism,” which was published by the University of Chicago press. My second memorable experience during the Summer Street Art Fair was my decision to volunteer and help the owner of Ann Arbor’s Anthony’s Gourmet Pizza to increase the volume of traffic and subsequently the volume of sales at the food truck on the corner of Liberty Street, between Main and Ashley Streets. The owner, a Greek-American businessman known as Theo, offered to pay me in cash or pizza. That was an easy decision! My choice was to be paid with Anthony’s Gourmet Pizza. When my shift ended, Theo generously handed me a couple of pizza boxes. The boxes contained Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I only worked for one afternoon on a Saturday. When I got back home in central campus, my housemates were jumping up and down because they had been looking forward to eating lots of Anthony’s deep dish pizza. Many people in Ann Arbor believe that Anthony’s makes the most delicious pizza though it is high-priced. It could make anyone’s taste buds explode with delight. It can make the palate and tongues linger memories reminiscent of a great Schillington Morgan selling Groundcover during the Art Fair. Giordano’s Chicago deep dish pizza. OOO LALA!!! Conclusion After attending and participating in the Ann Arbor Summer Street Art Fair for so many years, I do wonder what some famous connoisseurs of artistic beauty, love and freedom of expression might think — such as playwright William Shakespeare and poet John Keats. Shakespeare might take us back to his Sonnet #18: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate … And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; / Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, / And often is his gold complexion dimm’d …” The phenomenal 20-something English poet John Keats might want us to remember his famous poem known as “Endymion.” The poem says, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever …” Enjoy Summer Art Fair 2026! GROUNDCOVER NEWS Observing, participating in Ann Arbor Art Fair 13 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website.
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