On the first Friday of every month, Congress Street in Portland bustles as locals, tourists and students venture out to peruse the downtown galleries and take in the vibrant scene of street performers and musicians.
This month was no exception. The Portland Museum of Art showcased an exhibit named “Call of the Coast: Art Colonies of New England” that included art from Charles Ebert, Willard Metcalf and Andrew Winter.
Space Gallery, another one of the ever popular stops on the Art Walk, featured Sam Winston’s “Romeo and Juliet” series of collages. The collages mixed lines cut out of Shakespeare’s seminal tragedy into hypnotic geometric designs. “Space is great,” said Alana Corbett of Brooklyn, NY. “They put on good shows, and I love it.”
“Portland has such a tight-knit arts community,” said Whitney Art Works employee and local artist Celeste Parke, noting the sometimes cliquey nature of the town’s art scene “First Friday really helps to open it up to new people.”
The event attracts artisans from across the state, giving them a unique, free, well-attended venue in which to display their work.
Rolling a three-foot sphere of welded horseshoes down Congress Street on Friday night, Jay Sawyer proudly displayed his sculpture “Endless Trot #1”.
The sculptor lugged the three-hundred-pound piece from his studio in Warren, where he works with other found materials that harkens back to the state’s rural history – including a similar sphere of welded railroad spikes.
Performance artists and musician Id M Theft Able set up shop outside of Congress Street record store Strange Maine, using a violin bow to scrape at pieces of metal attached to a reclaimed speaker box, entrancing – and in some cases confusing – passersby with his atonal, scat-like sounds that accompanied the playing.
When asked to describe his style of music, Id M Theft Able said “I don’t really think about it like that,” then pondering, added “free”
The real highlights of the evening, however, happened on the sidewalks. In Congress Square, a group of circus performers walked on broken glass and danced with a flaming hula-hoop. Across the street, a full steel drum band performed as the sun set over Congress and High.
The next Art Walk will be on Friday, October 2nd. Students interested in attending are encouraged to join the group that will be leaving from the Woodbury Campus Center at 5p.m. If you have questions about the outing, contact the Portland Events Board at 228-8510.