PASEO ARTS FESTIVAL
Memorial Day Weekend, May 26-28, 2007.
The festival hours will be Saturday from 10:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. and Sunday from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. The Paseo is located between NW 30th and Dewey and N.W. 28th and Walker in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The Paseo Arts District in Oklahoma City will host the annual Paseo Arts Festival on Memorial Day Weekend. Seventy-five artists will have their fine art on display in tents along the Paseo. There will be painting, pottery and jewelry, along with sculpture, wood working and wearable art.

The festival’s two stages will showcase the talent of Oklahoma's best musicians and entertainers. A free children’s area will give kids a chance to make art and have fun being creative The Paseo was built in 1929 as the first shopping district north of downtown. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The curved two block long street has the feel of a little Spanish village. The buildings are stucco with clay tile roofs in the Spanish revival style.

Today the Paseo is the home of Oklahoma City’s artist community. The Paseo is home to 17 gallery/working studios and over 60 artists. There are painters, potters, photographers and actors on the Paseo. Intermingled with the art are, dress shops, gift shops, restaurants. The arts festival was started 31 years ago by the artists on the Paseo. The Paseo Arts Festival is a quality arts festival run by artists for artists. A small fee is charged for booth space during the festival.

The Paseo Artist Association does not charge a percentage or commission on Artist sales. A jury selects the artists at the festival and the art on display is some of the best in the southwest.

Paseo Artists Association
3022 Paseo
Oklahoma City, OK 73103
405-525-2688

too ban I will not be in the city, otherwise I would attend. I will be in Japan again.

But that got me thinking, why doesn't the Paseo move their Arts Festival to happen just after the big one downtown? That way, there could be an Arts Extravaganza in the city since there are tons of visitors for the downtown fest. And since the Paseo would be immediately after the downtown fest, they would not compete but would compliment!

Isn't there yet another Arts Festival, like in the Southside OKC somewhere? That would be cool to have 3 or 4 arts festivals in OKC, beginning with the Festival of the Arts and concluding with the Paseo Arts Festival.

I was just thinking ....

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Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

Edmond also has a very nice Arts Festival, I believe it is the week after the Okc Arts Festival.


The Southside Okc Arts Festival is at the Okla City Community College near I-240 and May Ave. I don't know the exact dates for the festival at OCCC.

Yeah, the Edmond Arts Festival is the week after Festival of the Arts as okclee mentioned. The one at OCCC is not quite the same sort of arts festival, but one nonetheless. The real key is to get our official "Arts District" or "Arts Quarter" if you prefer to get some real art events going. The only thing it has going for it is the Civic Center and OKCMOA.

I agree, we need more galleries and museums in the Arts District/Quarter. I hate how downtown OKC draws the boundaries for it, including the Cox and Ford Centers.

Cox and Ford Centers are convention and arenas, not ARTS. Has nothing to do with the arts but more to do with the Central Business District and Entertainment. Civic Center is included ONLY because it is a fine arts theatre, hence Art; ditto for Stage Center for the Performing Arts.

Myriad Botanical Gardens and Festival Park/plaza, ok, sure - it could be included as Arts, but not the Convention Center and Ford Center, those are business/entertainment venues. Just my vent.

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Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

My fiance submitted to Paseo. Didn't get in.

We'll try again next year.

Metro, do you have anything to with the jury selection? Her stuff is really good and we've been very successful in other shows. We don't know why we didn't geit in.

The Arts Festival Oklahoma at OCCC is held Friday thru Monday of Labor Day weekend each year.

What kind of art does she do?

Cid, unfortunately I do not have anything to do with the jury selection. If I had it my way, I'd allow a lot more artists to come in such as your fiance and make it an even bigger festival. That's the problem with the Festival of the Arts, etc. It's a huge annual event, but they don't grow it any! Just think how big it could be after all these years of success.

She does handcrafted jewelry right here in Oklahoma City.

We did this one last year. We were very successful there.

Yep, it's a shame. It could easily be one of the premier shows in the country like the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver.

We really wanted to do Paseo though because it's not as commercial. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Just a courtesy reminder, the Paseo Festival is this weekend, so all of you not going out of town for Memorial Day, don't say OKC doesn't have anything to do. This is one of many events going on this weekend.

I plan on going around 5ish on Saturday. Of course one of my band members is guest appearing with another local band, so I have to make an appearance. I love this arts festival though, just wish parking was an option.

I'm starting to not feel very well though...I hope it passes quickly.

This is the last day for those of you who've not gone yet. I "drove by" on NW 30th yesterday and it was packed with people! I'm going today ... and hope that it doesn't rain!

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Doug
http://www.dougloudenback.com/downtownOKC.htm
http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahomacity.htm
http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/

Supplementing my first Paseo blog post, Doug Dawgz Blog: The Paseo , I've added my wife's and my "tour" of the Paseo Arts Festival on a cloudy but great Monday. This is essentially a duplicate of what is found here ... Doug Dawgz Blog: 2007 Paseo Arts Festival

The 31st Annual Paseo Arts Festival was a smashing success, despite mildly inclimate weather -- temperatures were pleasant and only a mild sprinkling of mist was an inhibitor, perhaps more than "mist" before this cloudy Monday when the pics below were taken! Even if an occasional rainy drizzle fell over the Memorial Day Weekend and prompted many to bring, and need to use, their umbrellas, the art, the performances, and the dawgz, were absolutely outstanding!

"Dawgz," you say? Yeah, P.D. Eastman (writer of <i>Go Dog Go!</i>) would have been proud! The pics below do not begin to capture the significantly large audience of dawgz at the 2007 Paseo Arts Festival!

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Doug
http://www.dougloudenback.com/downtownOKC.htm
http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahomacity.htm
http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/

Nice pics.

I actually enjoyed the weather this year. It's typically hot and balmy during the paseo arts festival. This year was kind of a relief, though I am sure the merchants may say otherwise. It was still a pretty good turn out when I went on Sunday.

Thanks, BDP ... despite the drizzle, it looked to me like the event was well attended and, yes, the weather was quite pleasant ... it would be good to know the attendance "tally," though.

As to the pretty dancers that I didn't name (because I didn't know their name when I wrote the post and it's too late to edit it), I've added, in my blog, this text ...

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Doug
http://www.dougloudenback.com/downtownOKC.htm
http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahomacity.htm
http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/

Great reporting, as usual, Doug! Makes me wish I had actually made it out there like I planned, but alas work beckoned.

Hmmm ... with a dog like your avatar, are you sure that you weren't there???

Unfortunately, I didn't "charge" the batteries in my camera before I went on Monday ... and it ran out of juice before I was done taking pics ... there were several other dogs that I'd have enjoyed posting ... oh, well ...

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Doug
http://www.dougloudenback.com/downtownOKC.htm
http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahomacity.htm
http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/