The Uptown Association announced last week that it has rebranded the Uptown Art Fair as the SoMi Art Fair, and it has a new home in the parking lot of Bachman’s at 6010 Lyndale Av. S.

While the changes come as a financial necessity for the Uptown Association, which puts on the fair, artists and visitors alike have mixed feelings about all of it.

One of the main reasons for the move is the newly reconstructed Hennepin Avenue, which offers wider sidewalks, new bike lanes and a center median.

“We’re unable to put booths on both sides of the streets without having an emergency lane, which is super important,” Uptown Association director Jill Osiecki said. “And then you can’t have the median there with ADA regulations, so that cuts down basically half of your income if you can’t use half of the street.”

She also cited the fair’s rising security costs after the pandemic and uprising. There is 24-hour security at the fair, and costs for the three-day event have risen from $30,000 to more than $80,000. The fair was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic, and then again in 2021 following the killing of Winston Smith Jr. on June 3 of that year. In 2024, it moved to Bachman’s parking lot because of Hennepin Avenue reconstruction.

Longtime exhibiting artists seem to be mostly onboard with the changes.

“I loved being in Uptown,” artist Greta Sandquist said. “There is a great energy there, and on one hand I feel sad that it won’t be there anymore, but maybe a fresh start is exactly what this art fair needs.”

The Uptown Art Fair always has been important for artist Nicole Houff, who creates and photographs Barbie and Ken dolls in various scenarios. In 2017, she was the fair’s commemorative artist. She isn’t opposed to the move.

“The art fair is a fundraiser for the community, and so it’s all tied in,” Houff said. “Just because it’s not on Hennepin and we’re partnering with Bachman’s, who we’ve done plenty of things with before and who are fantastic, it’s different. I don’t see it as being bad.”

The change has had an impact on Uptown locals and longtime fairgoers.

Uptown resident Adam Wysopal, who has written about the changes on Hennepin for Southwest Voices and closely follows urban planning and policy, is disappointed about the changes to the fair.

“I really think the new Hennepin is going to help improve Uptown, so it’s sad to see the changes being held out as a reason to move the event,” he said.

He wondered why the booths couldn’t have just moved to the Mall Park, between the Midtown Greenway and Lagoon Avenue from Hennepin Avenue to Lake of the Isles.

“A lot of the booths were along the Mall, where there aren’t any medians,” he said. “So even if you had to remove some of the booths or vendors between Lake Street and the Transit Center, I still think you could put on a good and busy event.”

Going to the Uptown Art Fair is an annual tradition for Edina residents Zack and Shannon Steven. The fair overlaps with their anniversary.

“Part of the uniqueness about the fair was the location,” Zach Steven said. “I appreciate that it is continuing to the extent that it is but would love to find a way for it to continue in Uptown.”

Steven has another familial connection to the fair’s location.

“My dad Richard Steven was a potter who actually exhibited at the Uptown Art Fair. He had a booth there [from around 1970-75], around when I was born,” he added. “I would enjoy that aspect of personal history when I went back to it.”

The new Uptown Art Fair is rebranding to SoMi, short for south Minneapolis, and in alignment with the changes.

“It just can’t be the Uptown Art Fair at Bachmann’s,” Osiecki said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

The fair was hosted at Bachman’s last summer because of the Hennepin Avenue construction last year forced it out of Uptown.

Osiecki said that having the fair at Bachman’s also cuts down on the need for sponsors. Rather than the 25-some sponsors with booths that they’ve had in previous years, now Bachman’s is the sole sponsor.

“They have this fantastic parking lot in a really good location, just the partnership with their beautiful store and garden center,” she said. “The conditions just really worked out really nicely for everyone to have a really super clean event that is more focused on artists, other than additional vendors and sponsors and things like that.”