This Year's Art Hop to Be Biggest Ever

This year's Art Hop on Alberta will buzz with art events — from visual displays to performances — for a complete weekend.

The festival, themed "Art of Surprise/Surprise of Art," runs Saturday, May 20, and Sunday, May 21. Festivities kick off both days at 10 a.m. and run into the evening. The fair takes place along Northeast Alberta Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 31st Avenue, making it one of the longest street fairs in Oregon.

This year's festival, put on by Northeast Alberta's local business owners and artists, features four stages of music, international and city-sponsored art retrospectives, strolling performers, food vendors, gallery and street art sales and more. In addition, Art Hop 2006 initiates a festival partnership with Oregon Country Fair, and will shift evening revelers inside for a special"Alberta After Hours" celebration.

"Art has a transcendent kind of power," said Alan Oliver of Onda Gallery, one of the event's sponsor galleries. "It adds an aspect that is very important to the emotional and spiritual quality of our lives and to the community in which we live."
For more information, visit www.artonalberta.org/arthop.