Overview The Ann Arbor Art Fair is three juried art fairs running side by side for three days in July, with nearly 1,000 artists across 30 blocks of downtown Ann Arbor, from Main Street out to the University of Michigan campus. The three are the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, The Original; the State Street District Art Fair; and the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair, the largest of them, run by The Guild of Artists and Artisans. Each fair juries its own artists. The Guild is a nonprofit membership association of professional artists, founded in Ann Arbor in 1973, and it produces eight fairs a year across Michigan and Ohio. On site Each fair holds its own streets. The Original sits on Ingalls Mall, North University and East Washington, the State Street District fair works the blocks around State and Liberty, and the Summer Art Fair splits into a downtown section on Main and Liberty and a campus section on South State and South University. In 2026 three music stages ran through the fair - Stage on Main, the Fountain Stage and Music on Maynard - with an Art Demo Zone, a Mini Sensory Zone, a Youth Art Fair, a Kids Collectors Club, Chalk the Walk with artist David Zinn and the Piano Lounge in its 47th year. The Summer fair's Gutman Gallery tent hangs work by 14 gallery artists in one shared booth. Track record The fair began in 1960, when 132 artists set up along South University during the merchants' Bargain Days and sold $4,500 of work between them. By 1964 there were 380 artists and jurying began; by 1968 sales had reached $150,000. The Summer fair grew out of the Free Arts Festival that young Ann Arbor artists started around 1970 for emerging artists and art students, and the three fairs formed a joint committee in 1990. Brand presence The Guild sells partners into the Summer Art Fair by program as well as by space: a booth for sampling and giveaways, a stage, the VIP experience, the volunteer corps, or naming on the Emerging Artist Program, which trains newer artists with veteran fair exhibitors and then gives them a spot at the fair. In 2026 WEMU 89.1 supported Stage on Main, 107.1 supported the Fountain Stage, and We Rock the Spectrum presented the Mini Sensory Zone.