About

Prepare yourself for an Alice in Wonderland inspired Arts Extravaganza featuring all types of artists and performers — from Fine Art to Fire Art, and everything imaginable in between.
 
• 34K square feet of interior gallery space for visual art 
• 300+ Artists including Visual, Music, Dance, Fire, Art Cars, Spectacle, Spoken Word, Live Painting, Film, and Fashion
• Food Trucks and Bars
 
Opening Gala Night on Saturday 9/24, Gallery Viewing Days on 9/25, 9/30, 10/1 and culminating in a Closing Bash featuring “Pivot: The Art of Fashion” show on Saturday 10/1.
 

What’s this all about?

alice in front of blue David

Anne & Mark’s Art Party: An Occasional and Irrational San Jose Arts Fest

 

Some say it’s an “Art Exhibition” others say it’s a “Happening”.  It’s been described as, “Mad Max meets Moulin Rouge”,  “Burning Man meets Venice Biennale.” Some say, it’s better than… anything they’ve ever experienced…and we won’t argue with that.

 

It all began in 2007, when we got the idea to convert our downtown house into a gallery and invite our friends and family to showcase their talent, and invite all their friends, family and fans for a “One Night Stand for the Arts”.  We said we’d never do it again.  But we did.  Each time the past artists and guests invited their friends, family and fans, and each time it grew bigger.

 

We’ve gone from one night to one week, from our house to a warehouse, and now to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. We now have hundreds of artists and thousands of guests and the only thing we need is…YOU!

It all started with the cows

In 2006, Anne and Mark — having lived in San Jose for several years, and having seen nary an artist — decided to go on a search. They ended up at the Citadel one night during Open Studios and, down at the bottom of the steps, they saw a man in a trench coat yelling, “The Cows, The Cows!  Ya gotta see the cows!”  Eventually they ended up in Ben Alexy’s studio, where they saw some BIG cows.  18′ X 8′.  “You don’t do sofa size, I suppose,” said Anne. “Nah, that’s not really my thing,” said Ben.

 

Anne and Mark really liked the cows.

 

About three weeks later, they miraculously found themselves in contract for a house with an 18′ wall and, when asked by a relative if they would have some kind of house-warming, they thought, “Yes! And maybe we can borrow the cows.” (Anne thought, in a calculated manner, “This is the only time in my whole life I will manage to get all of my relatives — most of whom were ranchers — to come to my house.  And I want them to see the cows!”)

 

So they did.  And the relatives came.  And they came back.  And more people came.  And David Middlebrook thought it was cool, and he carted his sculptures down….And other people came.  And now they have created a monster.  (Note, none of this could have ever happened without Georgie Huff, who came over regularly with bottles of wine and yellow note pads and reminded them in the morning what they had said the night before.)

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