As part of this year’s “Celebration: A Festival of the Arts,” the two art shows throughout the weekend will be dedicated to Doug Lawhead.

Lawhead, a computer and LAN specialist in the College of Arts and Humanities, who also taught photojournalism classes in the journalism department, died in 2012 after an apparent heart attack.

The festival will be Friday through Sunday on Seventh Street between the Doudna Fine Arts Center and Buzzard with different artists and musicians coming out to commemorate the arts.

Dan Crews, the director of patron services, said Lawhead had been a supporter of the festival for many years, and in the last few years Lawhead had been participating with his own art.

“He’d been a photographer for years, and he just really started taking his artwork and doing some creative things with it,” Crews said.

Crews added Lawhead still had some art pieces remaining, and his family will be participating in the art shows.

One of the awards for the art show is a 2-D award, which was been renamed the Doug Lawhead Award.

The art shows will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Crews said the art shows are one of the bigger attractions during the festival.

“People come for different reasons, but one of the main ones people come for is the art show on Saturday and Sunday because it’s one of the best line ups of artists you’ll find,” he said.

Crews added that the artists sell their own work — and it is all made personally.

“All of the artists who participate create what they’re selling in their booths. They’re not buying something and reselling them,” he said. “They are the person who makes them. That’s kind of always exciting.”

Surrounding the art shows for the weekend will be a mix of artists, musicians and food as the 2013 festival commemorate the arts.

An outdoor stage will be home base to various music performances throughout the weekend.

Crews said music will be playing continuously during the festival.

Crews said the goal for the festival is to have 45 to 50 vendors.

He said recruiting vendors involved sending out press releases and applications for each specific vendor’s work. The applications were sent out as early as late January, he added.

Crews said the artists who participated previously get sent an application and get first rights of refusal.

“The nice thing is that we’ve increased our art vendors — we’re almost sold out completely,” Crews said. “We have about 10 more artists than last year.”

Crews estimated 6,000 to 8,000 people attend the festival each year.

“That’s from the time we start on Friday morning at about 11:30 a.m. to about 6 p.m. Sunday,” he said.

Crews also said people could find various forms of entertainment in the festival, from art shows to crafts to even the food.

“A lot of people come for the music, so there’s a lot of different reasons,” Crews said. “And then there’s people like me who are in the mood for a chili dog and will come out for the festival food.”

He said this is the second year the festival has been on Seventh Street, after spending many years in the Library Quad.

“It was getting more difficult to get into the Library Quad,” Crews said. “Plus if the weather went bad and it rained, the Library Quad wouldn’t drain as quickly as other places.”

The festival will be going on despite potential weather conditions.

“If it’s a downpour we’ll usually have to cancel, but if it’s mild weather, we’ll still go,” Crews said. “People will still come out for that kind of thing.”

Bob Galuski can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].