Glass blowers, chalk artists entertain at Boston Arts Festival

More than 130 onlookers cheered the Boston Tap Company on as they took the stage at the Boston Arts Festival Saturday, clicking to the beat.

“These kids are absolutely electric when they perform,” said Chris Cook, director of the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events, of the tap-dancing company based out of Dorchester. “They do a mix of tap and jazz.”

Cooke said between 60 and 100,000 tourists and Boston residents alike flocked to the 10th annual Boston Arts Festival this past weekend, which included 19 performances and more than 55 visual artists.

“What we really try to do is we try to show a reflection of the vibrant cultural sector in our neighborhoods,” Cook said.

Performances from Berklee School of Music students and the Boston Symphony Orchestra also entertained participants of the three-day festival.

The festival, which took place at Christopher Columbus Park, showcased almost exclusively Boston area artists, Cook said.

Artists specializing in jewelry, clothing, ceramics, illustrations, glass, photography and wood showcased their work over the festival’s three-day period.

Dorie Klein, a 17-year-old student of the Diablo Glass School, performed glass-blowing techniques the entire weekend and said the festival definitely helped glass sales and awareness of the school.

“I think it’s really important in any city to have people be interested in the arts and culture,” Klein said. “Bringing that to the public, for free, here, is something that’s really awesome.”

Jerrie Lyndon, a chalk artist who received her masters in Arts and Non-Profit Administration from Boston University in 2011, was copying Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” in a five-and-a-half-by-seven-foot space of concrete at the festival.

Lyndon said she looks up every minute or so to talk and explain her work because she loves interacting with festival-goers.

“I’ve been using chalk art as a way of engaging the community and showing artwork for free,” she said.

Lyndon said she has been chalking for seven years and loves showing her work to Bostonians.

“I love the fact that I can work with the community here,” she said. “I use it as opportunity to talk about Van Gogh’s work. I teach a little about art history as well as do art at the same time.”

It would take between 10 and 11 hours to finish her chalk piece, she said.

The festival-planning process took about eight months, Cook said, and included a jury process in which visual artists apply to the festival and go through selection process based on quality of work, type of art and geographic base of operation.

“We do want to represent Boston as much as possible,” he said.

If visual artists are accepted they must pay a nominal fee to show their work, but Cook said that it is much smaller than many other festivals.

“We really just want these folks to make as much money as possible,” he said. “They just like to get in front of people so that when people are looking toward the holidays they will look back at that card and go ‘yeah, I’m going to get that something special.’ ”

Jess Faulk, a Boston resident of seven years, said she has attended the festival before and comes back for the amazing arts and crafts available for purchase.

“I’ve actually come back three years in a row for this specific belt buckle,” Faulk said, pointing to an electric blue belt buckle on her jeans. “There is an artisan that makes really great belt buckles and I come back to her every year.”

The performing art aspect of the festival began with a concert on Friday night by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

Cook said a rain delay of about an hour forced the crowd to take shelter in a neighboring hotel, but once the show started it was phenomenal.

“It was a great crowd out here,” he said. “They all had fun out in the rain. It was sort of small because we had a major thunder and lightning storm right before, but we still ended up with about 2,000 people. That was great.”

The cost of the festival was about $100,000, which went mostly to programming acts, Cook said.

“It’s beautiful, right on the water,” said Robbie Samuels, a first-time visitor to the festival. “I got some great gifts for family members when I was here, and now we are sitting here enjoying the tap dancers, so it’s a pretty great festival.”