Fall show offers another season for selling art in Sterling Heights

Julie Nicholls, from Nicholls Knits LLC, creates plushies during the art show. The plushies were a small portion of the handmade knit and crochet items she offered.

Photo by Patricia O’Blenes

STERLING HEIGHTS — Like complementary colors, autumn and art simply go together.

That was the vision of organizers who staged the Sterling Heights Arts Commission’s first-ever Fall Art Show, which was held Nov. 23 at the Sterling Heights Community Center, 40250 Dodge Park Road. 

With the holidays just around the corner, the event offered an opportune time for shoppers to buy artwork and crafts from local creators including ceramics, jewelry, baked goods, Christmas greenery and pet goods, according to Jeanne Schabath-Lewis, the chair of the Arts Commission.

Schabath-Lewis said she attended the event for around two hours. She explained that 24 artists ended up vending their creations at the new event. Most of the artists had also sold their work at last summer’s Sterlingfest Art & Music Fair, as they were invited to also attend the fall event too, she explained.

“For the first year doing this, you never know how it’s going to do,” Schabath-Lewis said, though she added that the artists she spoke to at the event noted a “consistent flow of people.”

Artist Len Sadro Jr., from Sterling Heights, said in an email that he makes welded art out of repurposed everyday metal items, such as “little dogs out of bolts.” He had good things to say about the new art show as a vendor.

“I have to say, for it being the event’s first year, I did very good in sales, and it had a nice steady flow of foot traffic from start to end,” he said.   

Due to the fall art show’s success, it is likely that it will return next year, Schabath-Lewis said.

Learn more about Sterling Heights by visiting sterlingheights.gov or by calling (586) 446-2489. Check out Sadro’s art by visiting facebook.com/rough.steel.9.