Commonwheel Art Festival celebrates 50th anniversary Labor Day Weekend

The year was 1974, it was summertime in Manitou Springs.

A group of about 40 artists, including macramé weaver Julia Wright, gathered together at Memorial Park to show and sell their work.

“The booths looked every way that you could imagine,” Wright joked. “Way back — 50 years ago — there weren’t tents in the park. Artists created whatever they could as displays.”

The artists came from all over the country, selected by a jury to share their art — a process still used by the Commonwheel Artists Co-op today.

“They called us hippies back then,” Wright joked. “But actually, you have to also be a business person to have met all the requirements.”

Now, five decades later, the Commonwheel Artists Co-op Art Festival has become an annual Manitou Springs tradition. This year, the festival is returning for its 50th anniversary on Labor Day weekend.

The festival will have about 100 vendors, including painters, potters, jewelry makers, photographers and sculptors. Throughout the weekend, local bands will be performing live music and food trucks will be scattered around the park.

This year will also see the return of the kids art activity booth for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the booth, children can create a leaf rubbing and enter a coloring contest. There will also be face painting, bubbles and a balloon artist.

“People get to meet the artists, talk to the artists, learn about the processes the artists go through,” said Wright, who has coordinated the festival since 1976. “A couple of these artists I’ve known almost all 50 years.”

And while a lot has changed since the first festival, Wright continues to enjoy seeing old and new artists share their work with Manitou Springs.

“My excitement is when I see younger artists show up, and we have quite a few,” Wright said. “Seeing young people come in and gravitate to the booths that have a style of art that speaks to them, that always makes me smile.”