FireFish gives residents sneak peak of annual festival

LORAIN — FireFish returns this month to downtown Lorain, and visitors got a sneak preview Friday night. In the alleyway between West Fifth and Sixth streets, artists set up murals, hanging displays and projections on the brick and flower pots in full bloom. This year's festival will be 2-11 p.m. Sept. 17 in the field near Broadway and Black River Lane. FireFish director Joan Perch said last year's festival preview was spread throughout the month leading up to the event. This year FireFish Arts is partnering with Main Street Lorain for its final First Friday event along Broadway. "We sort of went back to the roots of FireFish," Perch said. "When James Levin had been our artistic director, the idea was to activate spaces with arts to show people the potential of the city." Friday's event was a chance for several participating artists to showcase their ability to transform a space, FireFish Arts Coordinator Candice Pettigrew said. Video projections by Hiatt Hernon and Ross Bochnek bounced on the bricks outside Speak of the Devil cocktail lounge, while Jeff Pye's Start with Art students' portraits and paintings leaned against other buildings. ACES youth group was also involved, making the reflective disks hanging from trees and fire escapes Folk musician Jason Kaminski, of Elyria, also performed. This year's theme is "celebrating nature," Pettigrew said, lending itself to the larger-than-life florals on the sides of buildings or plywood, birds sculptures and the "pollinator sculpture gardens" of potted plants that dotted Broadway and the alleyway and will find their way to the festival grounds. "As the organization has evolved, it's always been grassroots — we're very bottom up and artist-driven, community-driven," Perch said. Friday's preview was not the first time the alleyway beside Speak of the Devil had found new life. It's played host to FireFish's comedy shows, and served as a social distancing space for Speak of the Devil during the pandemic, Perch said. "Part of what we do is even though there are other places with activated alleys with art, we don't do what everybody else has done," she said. While there are other cities with alleyways full of art, Lorain and its artists must stay authentic to the Rust Belt city. "The idea is let people come here, let people see how magical this is, get people excited and then some things will stay, but it will go away and people will want it back and then we'll figure out how to make it happen," she said. For the full festival, FireFish Arts has access to the festival site for a week leading up to the event, Pettigrew said and invited the community to several workshops from 4-8 p.m. Sept. 13 through 15. Artists, including Daniel McNamara and FireFish Finale Artistic Director Ian Petroni, will be on site creating the monstrous FireFish and other art for the festival. "We're bringing in artists from out of town and we're asking the community to come out and help us too," Pettigrew said. "We really are setting up kind of an art village down there for a few days. People will get to help work on the fish, will get to help make art for the festival and we're hoping that will give them some buy-in and feel like they're part of the festival." Also new this year, the fish will burn but all will not be lost. Artists will make a heart for the fish, which will be picked up by a bird puppet at the start of the traditional parade and deposited within the fish, Pettigrew said. Once the fish burns, the heart will remain and will continue to be used at future festivals year after year. "It's just part of the whole rejuvenation, the Phoenix and rising from the ashes," she said. Workshops are open to children and adults who are interested in helping create the FireFish or other art for Saturday's event. Those wishing to participate in the workshops can contact Ryan Craycraft at ryancraycraft13@gmail.com. Other artists or volunteers wishing to work between noon and 8 p.m. Sept. 12 to 16 can contact Craycraft to schedule times to work. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.