Signature Tri-Cities event plans 70th anniversary outdoor show this summer

The Richland Allied Arts Association is making a second attempt to celebrate the 70th Art in the Park this summer.

The association is now accepting applications for the juried show scheduled July 23-24 at Howard Amon Park in Richland.

The signature arts event was canceled for the first time in 70 years last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The show brings hundreds of artists and vendors, performers and nonprofit concessionaires from around the Northwest on the same weekend as the Tri-Cities Water Follies and HAPO Columbia Cup.

In 2019 the show had nearly 300 vendors — the biggest showing since the 1990s. Last year’s event was expected to draw nearly 45,000 people.

Event organizers told the Herald that that they are planning as if COVID guidelines will allow it to take place. The event is easier to cancel than scramble to put together at the last minute if allowed, they said.

Art in the Park dates to 1950, starting out as the Clothesline Show — so named because the paintings were displayed on clotheslines — at the Uptown Shopping Center.

The major fundraiser for the Allied Arts Association became the Sidewalk Show, with multiple locations around town, before morphing into its current form.

Applications are being accepted through June 5 at galleryatthepark.org/apply-now-2021. For more information, call 509-396-1035.