By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published May 5, 2026
FERNDALE — A staple of Ferndale’s celebration of art will be back in the residential neighborhoods this weekend.
The seventh annual Backyard Art Fair will return to the neighborhoods in both Ferndale and Oak Park from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 9.
This edition of the fair marks its biggest year yet, said organizer Kelly Kaatz, as it has expanded to 40 homes hosting more than 200 artists.
“We kind of wanted to make this our biggest event yet,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of positive support from the local community over the last six years. So, we decided to include more houses as kind of a celebration of the makers, artists and small businesses of Ferndale and Oak Park.”
Artists of all types will be featured at homes all around Ferndale and Oak Park, including ceramists, glass artists, painters, illustrators and lamp makers.
“There’s even a cat rescue in one yard that is featuring artists that make cat-related art,” Kaatz said. “Every yard kind of took their own personality, and I noticed this year some yards are booking bands and really making it a party.”
Ava Dark, of Custom Lights by Dark, will be making not just her first appearance at the Backyard Art Fair, but her first-ever fair appearance.
Dark, who is from Oak Park, has been selling remade light fixtures for two years. She picks up the fixtures mostly from Facebook Marketplace to clean up and refinish.
“What I do is I paint the glass or the acrylic crystals and basically give them like a second life, make them super colorful,” she said. “There’s a lot of dopamine that comes with finishing it and turning the light on and stepping back and looking at it. I don’t know, people seem to like them. So, it’s been really fun.”
Dark said her audience has mainly been online, but she had started to grow tired of shipping the giant chandeliers and the work that comes with it. She also hopes that by participating in the fair, she hopes to make more connections in the community and make local friends.
“I would like to be more involved in the community and I think that’s a really good way to do it,” she said. “I’m really excited. I think that light fixtures are something that get overlooked. They’re often very boring and people don’t take the time to update them, but I think sometimes when they see mine, they think, like, ‘Oh, I should replace that.’”
In the event of inclement weather and postponement, a rain date is set for 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 10.
For more information on the event and to find a list of homes, visit backyardartfair.com. Hard copies of the maps for housing locations also can be found at Tooth & Nail, Kept at the Rust Belt Market, Found Sound and the Ferndale Area District Library.