Danger, Delight, and Amateur Art

Under the steel shade of the W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds Expo Center — just past the magic show and military pull-up challenge — another spectacle and test of merit is on display. Rows of handcrafted bookshelves and display cases, pegboards and wire racks, thoughtfully exhibit a hodgepodge of handiwork often reserved for refrigerators, loveseats, and living room curios. Hundreds of entries await your judgment, so where do you start when perusing aisle after aisle of needlework, photography, and floriculture?

A deft eye follows the ribbons. But two years ago, the pride and pomp disappeared from the Arts Center. To our surprise and dismay, the fair ribbons had vanished. In their place? Stickers. The sudden change left our crew discombobulated.

“The first thing we all noticed that year is it just felt a little bit sad,” recalled amateur table setter and professional Fresh Produce employee Erin Murtha. “I think I took the ribbons for granted. I just always thought they would be there.”

The Sioux Empire Fair Arts Center has been a lifelong fascination for some at Fresh Produce. For others, their interest began when the whole crew submitted to the fair in 2018. Riding high on ribbon fever, we dedicated not one, but two Ipso shows to the spirit of art’s place at the county fair. Separate from our own fanfare, members of the Get Fresh Crew enter into the fair exhibition as a point of pride and tradition. We’re eager to see how our work stacks up against other amateur crafts folk and collectors. A fair ribbon not only signals your submission’s position among the ephemera, it persists as a keepsake, a memory of a job well done.

A ribbon is a symbol of achievement. A sticker, on the other hand, is merely a decoration, an immovable bauble whose position in the world of praise is best reserved for grade school arithmetic assignments and the t-shirt of a teacher’s pet.

Now, don’t get us wrong, Fresh Produce loves a sticker. We’re home to the world’s smallest municipality, Sticker City, after all. But as versatile as stickers are, they’re not up to the task of honoring and showcasing the hard work and creativity of the fine folks who pour their hearts and souls into an award-worthy fair entry. So, we did what any self-respecting and passionate creative crew would do: we put ourselves at the center of an artistic void.

“When you notice something is gone, that’s when you realize it’s important to you,” mused Ted Heeren, amateur scrapbooker and collector, and professional ad agency co-founder. “We care about artists in our community. We care about people that have creative gifts, and we want there to be space for them to show that side of themselves. It’s a small thing, sponsoring the ribbons, but it shows that we care about these things.”

We learned that the Arts Center volunteers were equally dismayed by increasingly reduced attendance and interest in the exhibitions. And so, the dwindling participation led to tough decisions. And yet, the art show must go on. So in 2024, Fresh Produce became the official sponsor (and designer) of the Sioux Empire Fair Arts Center exhibition ribbons — a distinction we don’t take lightly.

Among the coveted Best of Choice and Triumph of Talent ribbons, you’ll find a couple of new commendations: Danger and Delight. Adding to our tradition of exhibiting in the Arts Center, the Get Fresh Crew now individually awards Delight ribbons to exhibits that personally “elicited a high degree of joy,” and Danger ribbons to exhibits that “required a unique approach.”

Mike Hart, an amateur poet and professional ad agency co-founder has his own particular approach to awarding ribbons. As he explains it, “I’m not spending too much time. I’m just trying to see what elicits a visceral response. There are entries that make me say, ‘Oh, that’s awesome, or oh, that makes me a little uncomfortable, that’s a little dangerous.'”

The Sioux Empire Fair Arts Center is a special exhibition. Where else can you feast your eyes on an award-winning gourd steps away from an Etch-A-Sketch creation worthy of a Triumph of Talent? Stretching our own talents into new mediums and exhibition categories — treating our amateur status with reverence — connects us to a passionate creative niche. And now helping reward the efforts of our chosen creative community ensures that bulletin boards and shoeboxes remain full of mementos of achievement of fair’s past.