By MAGGIE MCMURRAY
Moapa Valley Progress
One of the highlights of any trip to the Clark County Fair is a stop in the Fine Arts building. Amazingly decorated with fun things happening every day, the building is home to the juried exhibit entries including home arts, fine arts, creative arts, industrial arts, science, home science, horticulture, and photography entries. The exhibit showcases everything from paintings to popcorn balls, crochet to carrots, and sewing to science experiments.
One of the highlights of the building every year is its decorations. This year will be no different, according to Fine Arts Building Director Robin Maughan. Maughan explained that this year’s theme is “Let’s Go to the Movies” and every area will be decorated around a different movie. Free popcorn will be distributed periodically throughout each day of the fair, giving the building the right movie aroma and its visitors the right movie snack.
Of course, the success of the building every year depends upon people entering their creations. Without entries, there is no exhibit, Maughan emphasized.
Fortunately, it is easy to enter your creations into the fair. There are dropoff and pickup places in Las Vegas, as well as two full days locally for drop off and another full day for pickup. Dropoff and pickup dates, times, and places can be found in the fairbook at ccfair.com.
There are several areas that Building Director Robin Maughan especially encourages people to submit entries. “We would love to see more sewing projects,” she said. “Our sewing entries are always low. Sewing is almost becoming a lost art.”
Maughan also encouraged more baked good submissions and more horticultural submissions.
The younger generation is especially encouraged to submit their work. We love to see entries from the youth,” Maughan said. “They are not judged against the adults, but solely against those in their age groups. There are many areas that youth can enter and we would love to see more participation.”
All rules and regulations, especially those that apply to each department, can be found at ccfair.com under the tag “exhibits” found at the top.
The horticultural division, run by Nikki Fessler, is a fun and easy way to display your vegetables or flowers. It is also a great division for kids to enter.
Dates and times for horticultural entries differ from other building entries, so be sure to check the rule book. Horticultural entries are judged shortly after they are entered so they can be seen at their best and still fresh.
Another carryover from years past is the Country Store. Participation in the Country Store is voluntary and it is run like a consignment shop. Anyone with crafts or creations to sell can contact Maughan. Sellers pay an initial fee plus a percentage of what they sell.
Maughan encourages everyone to enter this year’s exhibit because all entries win ribbons and it is a lot of fun.
“It’s always great to see what walks through the door of the Fine Arts Building at Fair time and see the creativity of the people in Clark County,” Maughan said. “It’s an exciting time and we’re so glad people want to be a part of it.”
