Lost Arts Festival
Culture: Short Feature
Each year on the third weekend of May, historical re-enacters and artisans come from all over to participate in the annual Lost Arts Festival. Nestled in the south side of Grand Rapids, Ohio, the Seven Eagles Historical Education Center serves as the setting for this event. The Lost Arts Festival invites visitors to experience life as it was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
During the weekend of the festival, re-enactors eat, sleep, and live at Seven Eagles, trading and bartering as in the days of yore. Visitors are invited to come onto the grounds, interact with the portrayers, and experience life as it was three centuries ago. The festival has something for the whole family, complete with games, food, and shopping.
The Lost Arts Festival at Seven Eagles began in the early nineties. Ever since the Arts Council Lake Erie West, a regional community arts agency, purchased Seven Eagles in 2001, there has been a renewed interest in the festival. The A.C.L.E.W. is continually striving to promote and expand the happenings at the event and hopes to continue to reach new audiences.
The festival's namesake comes from the skilled crafts and trades demonstrated by the artisans at the event, such as blacksmithing, basket weaving, and woodcarving. Many artisans will also sell their completed works, allowing guests to bring a piece of history home with them. From Native American tools to handmade jewelry, the items for sale are always fascinating and unique.
"It's bringing to the people some of the things that we just don't do for ourselves anymore," says Michael Burcewicz, a craftsman at the festival who specializes in toolmaking. "No matter where you stop, each one of these artisans has their own little niche, and they're very proud of it."
According to Seven Eagles Director Martin Nagy, the education is the most important aspect of the festival. The festival offers a more hands-on, interactive approach to history than traditional classroom learning. "It's not a museum with a plexiglass wall," says Nagy, "it's totally out there - you can experience it and feel how it was."
Nagy hopes to inspire the public to take a new interest in history. "You think of history, and it's all dead things - well, this is bringing history back to life."