Uptown Art Fair benefits from better housing market, CEO says

The CEO of the Uptown Art Fair, taking place in Minneapolis this weekend, said the improving housing market is helping artists.

Increased homebuying is leading to increased demand for indoor art, said CEO Maude Lovelle, She said that's a change from recent years, when outdoor art was more popular among buyers.

"Pictures, photography, sculptures, things that you would put on your cocktail table," Lovelle said, "because people now are moving, have new walls, new colors in new homes, which is very, very exciting for the artists, obviously."

Lovelle said the event seems more crowded this year.

"This is the 50th anniversary, so I think a lot of people are out here for very special reasons," she said. "People can give us the memories of art fairs in the past that they've attended, and/or the Uptown community. And we are putting them into a time capsule that we are going to be dropping into the new Walker library construction within a couple of weeks."

Last year, artists sold $1.9 million worth of merchandise, Lovelle said, down from sales of $2.1 million in 2011.

The Uptown event is one of several cultural events, including the Minnesota Fringe Festival, in the Twin Cities this weekend.