Near perfect weather greeted thousands of visitors to the Carmel International Arts Festival, which hosted more than 150 artists from across the country Sept. 22 and 23 in the Arts & Design District.

This year’s event marked the 21st annual festival, an event that has become the second biggest festival in Carmel, behind only CarmelFest. The Arts Festival – presented this year by Current Publishing - hosted more than 30,000 people during the two-day event.

The festival awarded more than $6,000 in cash prizes to selected artists. That includes a Best of Show award, Mayor’s Choice award and prizes handed out in specific media categories.

Winners for 2018 are:

The Best of Show – Anthony Slichenmyer

1st place – Taylor Mazer

2nd place – Kirk Miller

3rd place – Joel Pinkerton

Mayor’s Award – Taylor Mazer

BEST IN MEDIA:

Cliff Matyszczyk
JD Davison
Sharon and Jessica Bussert
Alan Sievers
Joel Fremion
Lisa Berry
Deborah Link
Neil Lemarly
Judy DeGan

HONORABLE MENTION:

Elaine Lanove
Guiteau Lanove
Lou Hii
Brad Devlin
Mark Waninger
Dawn Middleton

High School Division Winners:

The Rosemary Waters Excellence in Arts Awards – Lynn Xiong “Alice” Color Pencil

The Doreen Squire Ficara Carmel Arts Council Award – Ananta Pant “Metamorphosis” ceramic

Best of Show Carmel High School

Katie Phan “Ghost Acrylic”
Zoe Horn “Vibrant Tranquility”

Best of Show University High School

Siyu Zhong “Water color Portrait
Zhining Ding “Oil Painting/Self Portrait”

“We have always taken seriously our role of selecting the best artists we can find because we know that it’s the beauty of the art that keeps people coming back to Carmel for this annual event,” CIAF chairperson Dawn Fraley said.

For more, visit facebook.com/CARMELIntlArtsFestival.