Hotworks Fine Arts & Craft Show comes to Phillippi Estate Park

By Mackenize Palmer

Experiencing and creating art are two of the many things that make humans unique compared to all other species.

Patty Narozny, Founder & Executive Producer of Hot Works Fine Art & Craft Shows not only enjoys art as a hobby, but also as her job. She has been doing this since 2003, though art wasn’t always her job. Initially, Narozny’s background was media and special events. She has a corporate finance degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

“I found out very fast that I didn’t like the corporate world,” Narozny said. “I worked at NBC in Detroit, and I worked at the Metro Times, an alternative news weekly so that’s how I learned how to work with the media,” she said.

Narozny soon figured out that she didn’t like her job at NBC and started looking for jobs she was interested in.

“I got experience working major events and then decided to start one show, the Orchid Lake Fine Arts Show in Michigan in 2003,” said Narozny, “I started that, and now it’s in West Bloomfield, Michigan and is voted in the top 100 shows in America.”

An artist who has unfortunately passed, Roy Schallenberg, did Narozny’s first Orchid Lake Fine Arts Show and he told her to, “quit working these other events, we need you.”

Narozny said, “Roy started helping me, as I had no art show background, but I had event experience and media experience. I had a great team of people who went to all the shows and solicited for me.”

The Sarasota shows started in November 2020. The government didn’t know anything about COVID yet, so they didn’t get their permit until seven days before the show.

“I had to plan the whole show, but couldn’t take any money, while the media was saying that everything is on hold until we have permission to go,” Narozny said. “Then we put the show together in seven days. I knew I could do that… we saved a lot of artists. We did it because it was our profession and our expertise.”

“We were able to slam in five shows at Phillippi Estate Park during COVID when the rest of the country was shut down,” Narozny said. “We were outside, social distancing, and wearing the appropriate mandated face masks. That’s how this location got started.”

If you are interested in attending one of Hot Works Fine Art & Craft Shows you won’t have to wait long for them to come to you. There will be a Fine Art Show at Phillippi Estate Park November 16-17 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. This show will feature the work from diverse group of artists at their booths.

According to Narozny, “The media or discipline of art includes everything: paintings, sculptures, clay, glass, cyber, jewelry, wood, mixed media, and photography. Also, digital is a category now.”

There is something there for everyone. All work is original and personally made by the artists in the show. Top notch artists are a part of this event.

One of these artists is Micheal Coronius who is driving down from Michigan. He creates gorgeous chairs and is the featured artist of this show.

The show will have limited food available and working restrooms at the gazebos.

“The $5 parking ticket gets you a receipt to write off for the nonprofit and it gets you in and out access,” Narozny said. “If you come to the show and want to go home and think about it, you can come back without having to pay for parking a second time.”

The November show will also feature a Youth Art Competition involving kids ages 5-13.

“It’s a way we expose students to the rules and entrepreneurship opportunity of doing art shows for a living,” Narozny said. “We want to let them know that they can do something that they love for a living. The earlier they get started in life, the better.”

The application is available at Hotworks.org and it is $3 to enter up to two pieces of art. The artist can apply up to a week before the show, and the kids’ art is publicly displayed in the art show the weekend of the show. On Sunday at 3 p.m. the awards will be presented and there will be $250 in kids awards with four big prize ribbons.

If you are looking for something to do as a family during the fall or even by yourself, go to Phillippi Estate Park and visit the tons of artists waiting to show you what they can do.