Arts Watch: Arts at the county fair

By Bill McCann | The Winchester Sun

This year’s Clark County Fair and Horse Show will run the week of June 22 ‑29 at the Fairgrounds, 4980 Ironworks Road. As usu­al the Fair will fea­ture a vari­ety of pageants, the horse show, car­ni­val rides, night­ly spe­cial events includ­ing the demo­li­tion der­by, 4‑H and FFA exhibits and the Home Economics com­pe­ti­tions rang­ing from flower arrang­ing and canned goods, to cakes and cook­ies, pho­tog­ra­phy, paint­ing, antiques and more.

For the very first time the fair and horse show’s cat­a­log was not pub­lished. So, if you want to search out what cat­e­gories are avail­able for entry at this year’s fair, you will first need to go online to down­load the cat­a­log at https://clarkcountykyfair.org. On the open­ing page, just below the dates for the Fair (in green font) you will see “CLICK Here for Digital Fair Catalog 2024” (in a red font).

Beginning on page 74 and run­ning through page 79 of the dig­i­tal cat­a­log is infor­ma­tion about this year’s 2024 Home Economics rules and cat­e­gories. The rules are rather sim­ple though some cat­e­gories may have addi­tion­al require­ments that also must be com­plied with. As has been the case in pre­vi­ous years the exhi­bi­tion of Home Economics entries will be in Floral Hall begin­ning on Tuesday, June 25.

The most impor­tant Home Ec com­pe­ti­tion rules are that the com­pe­ti­tions are open to any Clark County res­i­dent; all arti­cles must be made, grown by, or, the case of antiques, pre­sum­ably, owned by the exhibitor.

Exhibits will be received at Floral Hall on Sunday, June 23, between 1 pm and 3 pm or Monday, June 24, between 9 am and 1 pm.

This year, cat­e­go­ry require­ments and com­pe­ti­tion rules will be strict­ly enforced.

Categories for this year’s fair are:

• Foods (Breads, Cakes, Cookies, Candy, and Pies); Canning (Canned Fruit, Canned Vegetables, Pickles and Relishes, Jams, Jellies, Preserves) Garden (Produce); Horticulture (Plants and Flowers).
• Handiwork & Heritage Skills (Apparel, Accessories, Quilts, Needlework); Fine Arts and Craftsmanship (Baskets, Stools, Caning Furniture, Woodwork, Miscellaneous Heritage Skills, and Gourds).
• Crafts (Dolls, Wall Hanging, Wreaths, Holiday Décor, oth­er than Needlework, Ceramics, Recycled Item, Silk Flower Arrangements, Christmas Floral Arrangements, Other Holiday Floral Arrangements, Jewelry, Glassware, Scrapbooking, Kitchen Items, Miniature Miscellaneous Item, and Paper Crafts.
• Visual Arts (Painting: Oil, Acrylic, Pen or Ink, Pencil, Colored Pencil, Pastel, Watercolor, Charcoal, Mixed Media, Digital Media, and Other Media; Photography: (Color, and Black & White).

Antiques (items that are 50 years old or old­er) rang­ing from kitchen items to chairs, stools, leather items books, ephemera, and pot­tery there are 41 class­es in this cat­e­go­ry so check your attic or base­ment to see if you might have an antique capa­ble of win­ning this year’s Antique category—or at least its class.

For those out­stand­ing exhibitors there are rib­bons and finan­cial pre­mi­ums as well. Blue rib­bon wins $4, red $2, and white $1. Grand Champions get $10, grand reserve $5 and over­all grand cham­pi­ons get $20, and over­all grand reserve cham­pi­on receives $15. The prize mon­ey is unlike­ly to make any­one feel wealthy; it may make the win­ners feel more appre­ci­at­ed, though.

Check out this year’s dig­i­tal fair cat­a­log and sub­mit your artis­tic, antique, food or pro­duce for exhi­bi­tion in this year’s Home Economics exhib­it at the 2024 Clark County Fair & Horse Show.