Happy heart, sore cheeks after successful Artspire in La Crosse

You know it was a good weekend, when your cheeks hurt.

That’s just how Allison Krzych was feeling Saturday, with Artspire back last weekend in La Crosse.

The assistant director for the Pump House Regional Art Center, downtown, didn’t have to mention what happened to the festival the year before. This summer, they had twice as many artists.

“My heart is happy and my cheeks hurt from smiling so much,” Krzych said. “It’s just amazing to see everybody come together. We started planning this in January and it was a very different world then. We just really wanted to keep people safe, and to come together, we’re already looking towards 2022 and be like, ‘Yes we are gonna be back in full force!’”

Krzych said they took all 20 artists who applied for the 2020 fest and included them with the 25 more artists that applied to be in the 2021 Artspire.

La Crosse has been celebrating Artspire since 2014 — minus 2020. The first year was to unveil the 3D mural on the Pump House wall.

Artspire is a free event put on by the Pump House, which is a nonprofit organization.