Ag Fair Posters: Worth a thousand words

By Duncan Pickard - July 26, 2007

Both time-tested and old-fashioned, current and fun, the annual Martha's Vineyard's Agricultural Fair proves irresistible to Islanders and visitors alike. The event combines the Island's agriculture, crafts, and traditions - quilts, crops, live stock - with family-style attractions - Ferris wheels, fiddle contests, and cotton candy. And every year, the Fair fulfills the image it inspires.

Part of the Fair's image is given definition by the original posters that are designed by local artists each year. In the 1960s, promotional companies distributed an idealized poster to advertise the annual event. It was Fair manager Abbe Burt who commissioned the first original poster from artist and Island native Allen Whiting. (Mr. Whiting's great-grandfather, Henry Whiting, was a founder of the Agricultural Society.) From 1976 to 1978, he created the first posters and in 1991 and 1993, two more, often depicting including his family members.

The reaction of the public and the business community to the locally created images was so positive that Denny Alexander, Fair manager in 1979, was then overwhelmed with artists who wanted to design that year's poster. Mr. Alexander's wife began selling copies of the poster in the information booth.

In 1984, the Fair's new manager, Eleanor Neubert, initiated a competition among Island artists to create an original poster. Most posters since then have been selected through this contest.

The contest is announced in late January and entries are due April 1. The Fair committee judges the art in secret, based on the posters' originality and representation of the Fair's traditions. Contemporary concerns about the artwork's marketability are also a factor. "We have to find art that will transfer well to a tee-shirt and that will also be a good seller," said Ms. Neubert. "We usually choose right. Most years we sell out."

The artists keep their original artwork, but the agricultural society makes as many as 1,500 copies, sometimes through multiple printings. The winning design is replicated on shirts, mugs, posters, bags, aprons, and book covers. For the first time this year, the Fair will sell calendars featuring this year's winning poster and eleven more from the past.

This year's winner is Jackie Mendez-Diaz's painting of a pig playfully poking his head over a replicated stained glass design. "I am thrilled to be part of the tradition. I love being in the company of all the other winning fair posters," says Ms. Mendez-Diaz who has been painting since she moved to the Vineyard in 1999. "The posters represent the Vineyard, and now I feel as if I am part of its history. She is donating her original painting of the poster to the Chilmark library.

Leslie Baker, a professional painter and book illustrator for more than 20 years, won the contest in 2003 with her painting of a fluffy white lamb inspired by one of Nancy Kohle's West Tisbury flock.

Ms. Baker is partial to animals. "I love their faces and it honors the great agricultural tradition." She entered competition because of her desire to be part of the local tradition and says winning "was right up there with getting into Illustrators Annual in New York City." Will she enter again? "Of course."

She says, "I love the fair. It's magical, and it gets you in touch with the child in yourself. It's about real people and the real Vineyard experience."

Duncan Pickard is an editorial intern at The Times.