From Conflict to Collaboration

continued

in the street fair's move to Ingalls Mall in 2003 (and the addition of "the Original" to its title) to make way for the association's own South University Art Fair.

South U association executive director Maggie Ladd acknowledges "some unease between the two organizations in the past, and the only way to resolve that was for the Street Fair to move. Once that took place," she insists, "the whole thing blew over. There were times when tempers were hot, but we worked together through five fairs while all this was going on."

Art Fair directors have been meeting sporadically since the 1960s as a marketing subcommittee of the mayor's art fair committee. But this year, meetings have been much more frequent, yielding plenty of tangible results. "My presence," Riley says, "may have helped to bring folks together."

The four directors--Riley and Ladd, along with Summer Art Fair executive director Debra "Max" Clayton and State Street Art Fair director Kathy Krick--have been meeting weekly since Riley was hired in January, initially to help bring her up to speed.