For a few hundred craftspeople, it is a weekend that we look forward to every year.
It's a funny thing for many Arizonans to fathom-
Yuma, while it does have it's charm doesn't usually evoke thoughts of a great destination-
Yuma is most often kindly thought of as perhaps a curious outpost on the edge of border towns in the U.S. ..a great place to stop on your travels to Southern California, but not usually a cultural mecca. Except on one long weekend every year (for the past 31st years) at the end of February. Then the floodgates open (*it's the desert) and hundreds of highly creative "Makers and Thinkers" fly in to lite upon the town like a cacophony of rowdy parrots.
Day one starts with a big party and meet up at Lute's Casino "Where the Elite meet". Driving in from all over- (Arizona, Oregon , North Carolina, Washington, California, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado...NM....etc etc.. )we meet up with the rest of the Symposium attendees for the annual Pin Swap and registration.
Yes, it's in a huge bar- and refreshments are flowing-And.. perhaps I should say right here that really, the Symposium has a party every night, (just to get that out of the way.)
Yuma Symposium started as a backyard barbeque after a Visiting Artist event 31 years ago...It was then as it as now: a jovial gathering of artists. The description of the events is too long to put into one blog post so I'm going to post that later this week....
Yuma Symposium part 2 in a few days...(along with tales of soldering woe)
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