Festival of the Arts nets Main Street state award

PORT WASHINGTON - Port Main Street Inc. walked away with three awards from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. this weekend.

Port Main Street won the Best Special Event award for the 2023 Festival of the Arts, Main Street volunteer Judy Cotter won a 2022 Community Champion award and Pear and Simple received the Best Business Visual Merchandising Display for its window displays.

“We’re really excited,” Kristina Tadeo, executive director of Port Main Street, said. “Port hasn’t won a lot of these awards in the past, and to win three in one year — that’s never happened.”

Tadeo said the award for the Festival of the Arts was especially gratifying for Port Main Street.

“We put a lot of effort into evolving that from an art walk to a full-on street festival,” she said, adding the event dovetailed with the beginning of the Paint on Port mural project last year.

“It was such a fun day with so many different art experiences. To have it recognized at the state level was a great accomplishment, especially since there are so many great events statewide that were entered in that category.”

This year’s festival will be held on June 1.

Cotter’s recognition validated her leadership “on so many projects,” Tadeo said.

Cotter was the public face of the effort to create the Heart of the Harbor plaza in 2020 — a project that garnered Main Street and the City of Port the public/private partnership award from the WEDC in 2020, Tadeo said.

“She was the Main Street Design Committee chairman and served as the project manager,” Tadeo said. “It was during a time when we were between directors, and she kept it moving along.”

Cotter also led the effort to the creation of Harborview Corner, a beautification project at the corner of Franklin Street and Grand Avenue, and has been active in the Paint on Port project, she said.

“She has taken on a ton of leadership roles and had a lot of great impact on our downtown,” Tadeo said.

Pear and Simple’s award was for its “amazing window displays,” Tadeo said.

“They really do knock it out of the park,” she said. “They set the bar high for downtown. They’ve been very creative with windows that change with the season and the holiday.”

The displays are so popular, she noted, that store owner Melissa Suddendorf reports that numerous people have told the store staff that they were lured inside by the displays.