Summer is when Rochester truly comes alive — blossoming, first, with the Lilac Festival, and then playing gracious host to many festivals throughout the subsequent months. Laughter rings out from the streets; the air feels sweeter, even. However, for college students who are only here from fall to spring, this way of engaging with the city holds an elusive joy, one only accessible to those with an internship in town or sticking around with some other plan. And for some students who stay, summer becomes an opportunity to step outside the campus bubble and engage with local culture in a new way: by selling their artwork at festivals.
Kevin Colgan had never heard of the Corn Hill Arts Festival before finding an Instagram ad to apply for a booth. As a fourth-year mechanical engineering major at Rochester Institute of Technology, his photography was just an outlet, a step away from the rigor of academic studies and a push to get outside. Being accepted as an emerging artist for Corn Hill was Colgan’s first foray into the world of professional art and, due to his intense workload and preference for nature, one of the longest periods he had spent downtown.
“There’s no time during the school year,” he said. “Photography is a good excuse to go out. Sometimes it’s what drives me to actually step away from the computer.”
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Colgan spent half of last summer working with his dad’s old film camera, learning how to print his work and hosting mock shows — complete with a full tent setup — in his garage. After driving up to Rochester for the weekend, he found that his $50 application was a great investment. He was the only photographer in his section, so a couple friends watched his tent while he looked around, chatting with other artists. Since his experience at Corn Hill, he has been taking photography classes at RIT to foster his growth.
“People are pretty focused on engineering, so if [anyone is] having artistic adventures, they’re not too open about it,” he said. “I definitely think there should be more students trying to get into these art shows.”
In contrast to Colgan, Leo Richmond knew he wanted to get involved in the festival scene from the beginning. As a fourth-year illustration major at RIT, Richmond found his artistic interests often varied from that of his peers, who were focused on designing for movie or game studios rather than his preferred medium of comics.
“People are like, ‘I want to be an engineer, I want to be a doctor,’” he said. “I want to be in craft fairs.”
Richmond found the comic scene after years of drawing characters with friends on bus rides, and chose RIT due to the degree centered entirely on illustration. His first craft fair was the Rochester Indie Comics Expo (RICE), and he spent his junior year in an independent study prepping to vend at the fair. Since then, he’s also sold work at RIT’s Zine Fest and The Lucky Flea — he’ll also have a booth at Queer Handmade Rochester’s art sale at the Allendale Columbia School in July, which he found through chatting with other artists.
“You really do start to notice there’s a tightly-woven community of makers and crafters around here,” he said. “I’ve got a spreadsheet of things to apply to now through word of mouth.”
While Richmond will head home to Syracuse after graduating in May, everything he’s learned in Rochester — both formally and through the connections made in the vendor world — makes him antsy to come back to the festivals here.
“I’m an indie, underground kind of guy, so I have to go to the indie underground places,” he said. “They’re special to me — they’re where I got my start.”
Vic Cohen will also be at the Queer Handmade Art Sale, as well as the Spring Renaissance Festivus at Three Heads Brewing in May. A senior at the University of Rochester with a double major in brain and cognitive sciences and psychology, Cohen got into making chainmail jewelry during a long spell of staying on campus as a resident assistant during summer move-out.
“I was shopping on Etsy and I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s so expensive to buy cool chainmail earrings,’” they said. “And then I was like, ‘no, I think I could make that.’ So I ended up buying $20 worth of materials and just going crazy.”
From there, Cohen started selling jewelry to other students and their families and friends out of town. Interest in their work skyrocketed; they trundled a milk crate of Facebook Marketplace-acquired supplies to the Art Jam Market at Boulder Coffee Co. Cafe and Lounge last year, had a blast and never stopped.
Next year, Cohen will be studying at the Warner School of Education for a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling. Alongside their studies and work in a suicide risk lab, they plan to continue their chainmail work, with the support of a full Discord server of fellow creators through Queer Handmade Rochester.
“A lot of people talk about different vendor experiences they have — it’s a useful little community,” they said. “A lot of them will meet up together and rent a makerspace or coworking space to all do crafts together.”
Cohen has also gained a newfound love for the city due to their vendorship.
“I went ice skating a few weeks ago and I recognized someone from a craft fair,” they said. “I know so many people that are afraid of certain parts of Rochester, will not leave campus, don’t really know what to do on the weekends besides just sit in their dorms — it’s so fun to be able to actually get out there and know people.”
Alyssa Koh is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
