The First Friday Art Walk is a cultural gem of Portland.
This past Friday on April 3 people flooded the drizzly streets to observe artwork that was vastly different at each exhibit. Depending on your energy level, you can get a small sampling of art and only go to a few places or you can be adventurous and try to visit over 60 locations participating in the art walk. Not only are works of up-and-coming artists on display, but there are also opportunities for non-traditional artists to show their work.
At Time Gallery located at 516 Congress Street, the home of CTV channel 4, there is a display of the Spiral Arts group, a group of seniors who have come together to learn about art expression. Their work consists of paintings on fabric. The artists themselves were ecstatic to have their art on display. At the June Fitzpatrick Gallery at MECA, there was an exhibit of drawings, paintings, and sculptures based on one subject, the cow. This exhibit was a celebration of the gentle beauty of cows and their importance to our culture. Also at MECA, there is a stunning exhibit of the senior BFA students at the Institute of Contemporary Art. Using varied mediums from sculpture to video, this was perhaps one the most diverse and engaging exhibits in the First Friday Art Walk.
Space Gallery has been participating in the First Friday Art Walks “since Space opened, the first opening was in August of 2002, and we’ve participated in most every First Friday Art Walk since then,” says Nat May, the Executive Director of the Space Gallery. The Space presented work done by Anna Hepler and her collegue Andrea Sulzer, and Anna Hepler’s students in the advanced printmaking class at Bowdoin College. May explained that Anna Hepler “has wanted for a long time to try experimenting with wood block printing by using a wooden floor as the wood block instead of using a smaller piece of wood.” They went to the old Brunswick High School which will soon be torn down, and carved on the wooden floors of two different classrooms, covered the floors in ink, and laid paper on top to soak up the print from the designs. They pieced the papers together and formed a 30′ by 20′ print of the different designs that they carved.
If none of these exhibits inspire curiosity, the art walk may still be a worthwhile event. In talking with a few people, it seems the importance for those walking from exhibit to exhibit is not in what the art work actually represents, for most it is a social event. Anna, a local art enthusiast who was observing the new Antarctica exhibit in the Portland Museum of Art, has been going to the First Friday Art Walk for months. For Anna, the best thing about the art walk is, “the people you run into. It’s kind of hard to walk half a block without seeing 5 or 6 people that I know. It’s the most people I ever see on the street in Portland and it’s really fun.” Anna and her friend Jon list the Dooryard as their favorite place to go on the First Friday Art Walk. Anna says the Dooryard is great because you just “Sit down, make your own art, and eat really good food.”
For Portland, a small little sleepy city something like the art walk is a great way to get people to come out. Nat May explained a study done by the Portland Arts & Cultural Alliance on the economic impact of arts spending by non-profit organizations (which doesn’t include private galleries) had on restaurants, parking garages, and other extra expenses. Nat May stated that the Space Gallery’s yearly budget is $300,000 which generates an extra $700,000 spent because of the events held at Space. When people go out they have to spend money on things like gas, parking fees, babysitters, and a lot of times people go out to eat too, all of this adds up. “In a very real sense, economic sense, I think the art walk is a great way to bring people into town. It’s free, right? And there are other things to do like eat and other night time entertainment.”
So next time there is a First Friday Art Walk in Portland, show up, walk around and mingle for a little while. You’ll probably see familiar faces, see some wonderful art, eat great food, and do something that you wouldn’t do ordinarily.