Art on the Mall is an annual summer art fair that is held on the campus of The University of Toledo every July. This was the 23rd year of the event and there were over 100 booths featuring the work of artists working in a variety of media including acrylic, glass, pen and ink, pottery, and woodwork. The event is organized by the university’s alumni association and draws upwards of 10,000 people to campus. A few days before this year’s event my colleague Jim Nemeth sent me an e-mail asking why the Art on the Mall Beer Garden was going to be serving a beer from a brewery in New York State rather than a brew from Ohio. The beer in question was Saranac which is brewed by the Matt Brewing Company in Utica, NY. It was a good question.

Upon reading the UT News Blog story about the event I found the name and e-mail address of a person to contact with questions. So I e-mailed Ansley Abrams-Frederick who holds the position of Director of Alumni Programing. In my e-mail I expressed my disappointment that a brewery that is located over 500 miles from Toledo was the sole provider of beer at the Art on the Mall event. According to the Maps App on my iPad the distance from the University of Toledo to the Matt Brewing Company is 506 miles. I pointed out that there are over 110 craft breweries in Ohio while our neighbors to the north, Michigan, have over 160. I recognized the fact that there was a process for becoming an event vendor and that a local or regional brewer had perhaps not participated in that process. However, I did suggest that in future years, the committee organizing this event perhaps make an effort to reach out to breweries that have a stronger connection to the regional economy.

I had e-mailed Ansley after the close of business on a Friday. To her credit she e-mailed me back the same evening. She thanked me for my comments and the information that I had provided. She did note that two years ago they had partnered with a brewery out of Cleveland, OH while last year the beer had been provided by Toledo’s Maumee Bay Brewing Company. A little bit of detective work on my part revealed that the Cleveland brewery had in fact been the Great Lakes Brewing Company. So that was good news at least. Next year, she said, they would probably partner with another brewery.

But why do I care whether an event like Art on the Mall serves beer that is produced locally or regionally? A 2004 study by one of my colleagues in the Department of Economics compared the impact on the Toledo economy of a locally-owned bookstore (Thackery’s) versus a book store that was part of a national chain (Barnes & Noble). Thackery’s had been part of the Toledo retail landscape since 1983. The study found that for every $100 spent at Thackery’s $44 was returned to the local economy while $100 spent at the Barnes & Noble yielded a local return of only $20. Differences in these two numbers were explained by the fact that a locally-owned business is more likely to use local suppliers and service providers than a business that is part of a national chain. For example, if a locally-owned business is in need of legal advice it is likely to use a local lawyer whereas a business that is part of a national chain is likely to use a lawyer located elsewhere (perhaps one on staff at the company’s corporate headquarters). Sadly competition from two national chains (Barnes & Noble and Border’s) resulted in the closure of Thackery’s in 2005. It is exactly this incursion of national brands into our daily lives and the accompanying blind march toward blandness and homogenization that buy-local movements (including craft breweries) are rebelling against. And it is not just in Toledo. Studies from other parts of the country have found similar benefits of supporting locally-owned businesses.

I should point out that I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a buy-local zealot. But I do believe that a community wide event that is sponsored by The University of Toledo Foundation should do its best to support regional vendors, including breweries. As my wife and I walked by and browsed at many of the 100+ booths where artists were displaying and selling their creations I noticed that the vast majority (I’d conservatively estimate 95%) of them came from within a 75 mile radius of Toledo. The most geographically distant artist that I saw was from Cincinnati, OH, Yet the beer I drank came from over 500 miles away. The beer tent itself was not particularly impressive. There were four Saranac brews to choose from, all of which came from a Saranac variety pack. Had someone simply ran to a local retailer and purchased these? The beer was served in bottles and not even a  plastic cup was on offer. What a shame. What a wasted opportunity to showcase and promote regional craft breweries and their beers.

To be fair to Art on the Mall it should  be noted that there are lots of events that take place in Toledo where opportunities to serve local or regional beer are spurned. Every year over half a million people watch the Toledo Mud Hens play baseball at Fifth Third Field. Last week my wife and I attended a game there. It was quite a game as well. Mike Hessman of the Mud Hens hit a grand slam home run. This was Mike’s 433rd minor league home run and it beat a 78 year old minor league home run record set by Buzz Arlett of the Oakland Oaks in 1937. As we usually do when attending a ball game we had a couple of beers. With the exception of Yuengling all of the beers I saw on offer were mass produced lagers, some of which were not even brewed in the United States. Why don’t the Toledo Mud Hens offer beer that is locally or regionally produced?

So we will see what happens next year at Art on the Mall. I hope my e-mail makes a difference and that when the organizing committee is planning next year’s event that Ms Abrams-Frederick will remember my e-mail and will raise the issue with the said committee.