Ice-cream showdown highlights funky arts weekend in Somerville

On August 25, 2010, in Latest News, by The Somerville Times

– Photos by Camilla Finlay

By Lauren C. Ostberg

Somerville is all about diversity – on Saturday the Somerville Arts Council ArtsUnion series brought interactive art, ice cream, and a taste of the bizarre to Union Square.

The Ice Cream Showdown! promised “ice cream mayhem” in the form of curious flavors from Christina’s, JP Licks, the Chilly Cow Custard, and other area dairy-providers. Micah Goldman dug the “honey granola crunch,” and the Somerville News’s intrepid reporter braved the strange and wonderful world of Christina’s mango flavor.

Later that afternoon, artists, crafters, musicians, and enthusiasts flooded Union Square for the tenth year and first summer fair of the Bazaar Bizarre. Advertisements favored the terms “hodge-podge” and “handcrafted”; creative consumers favored the individualized, made on-site, letter-pressed signs of Repeat Press, which kept vendor Michael Dacey occupied for most of the four-hour event.

Local vendors displayed their wares, which contained giraffe-embroidered onesies, vegan purses, rabbit-themes canvas, vibrant ceramics, and a great deal of miscellaneous. Eight regional musicians entertained the crowd, with a repeat performance by the theremin-wielding Jonnie Spaceman.

Meanwhile, at the Prospect Hill Monument, Somerville artist Hannah Verlin filled a field with Bloom, an interactive art installation. Four-petal flowers, available in red or white, were labeled “he loves me/ he loves me not” or “she loves me, she loves me not” on alternating petals. Spectators were asked to take a flower from the exhibit – a redistribution of Verlin’s aesthetic, and a souvenir of a weekend in Somerville’s arts scene.