First Friday art tours have downtown hopping

FORT COLLINS — Fort Collins art aficionados keep the first Friday every month circled on their calendars ala “TGIFFGW.” That is, Thank Goodness it’s First Friday Gallery Walk.

The First Friday Gallery Walk takes place monthly on its namesake night from 6 to 9 p.m. in Old Town. Those who partake enjoy a free, self-guided tour of 16 downtown galleries.

The galleries involved work to make sure the night offers festive art fun.
“The galleries all remain open late that first Friday evening,´ said Myra Benson, administrator of Arts Alive, which coordinates the gallery walks. “They serve refreshments, sometimes they have an artist demonstration or a featured artist and you just go check it out.”

The gallery walks draw a diverse crowd, Benson said. “We see art collectors, students, professors, teachers, families. It pretty much crosses the board; people who love to see new art, like to talk to artists, meet artists, people who are artists themselves.”

With 16 stops on the tour there are nearly too many to visit in three hours, Benson said. Tour-goers can pick and choose. “You can start at any of the downtown galleries. They all have a brochure and map.”

Arts Alive is a nonprofit Fort Collins art service organization. The First Friday Gallery Walks are one of the ways it helps promote art and artists in Fort Collins. The organization also does art education and after school programs in the schools and produces workshops for artists and art groups on the business of art.
For gallery owners the monthly art walks are good business, Benson said. “It basically comes down to a way of promotion for the galleries. ? It’s exposure for the artists and it makes good business sense.”
The event seems to make sense for downtown Fort Collins as well. Other businesses downtown also stay open later on first Fridays to offer services to those drawn to the gallery tours.

As a result, “Places are hopping. They’re packed. That’s a lot, thanks to offering something people want to see and that they want to do. They can do this with their families. It’s walking and it’s creative.”
Benson said, “First Friday really has gotten more and more successful over the last couple of years to where we see a couple hundred people easily on a first Friday. It definitely impacts the economy.”

Rendezvous

An annual art walk takes place in Loveland in October. The 2004 Loveland Art Stroll and Oktoberfest, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Loveland, will be Oct. 2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Artists open their studios and galleries for the event and a local foundry offers tours from noon to 2 p.m.

People can enjoy self-guided tours of the city’s public art collection year-around. A brochure outlining the collection is available from the Loveland Museum/Gallery at Fifth and Lincoln. Call (970) 962-2410 for information.

Tour the city of Greeley’s public art collection on your own with a brochure published by the city as a guide. The brochures are available from the Greeley Cultural Arts Department at 651 10th Avenue. The department also offers information about the city’s sculpture-on-loan program.

Maps for the various art walks in Estes Park can be picked up at participating galleries, the Estes Park Chamber of Commerce or the Cultural Arts Council of Estes Park. For more information, call the arts council at (970) 586-9203 or visit the organization’s Web site at www.estesarts.com.

For more information about the First Friday Gallery Walks in Fort Collins, stop in at any downtown art gallery, the Fort Collins Museum at 200 Mathews St., or call Arts Alive, (970) 482-2232.

on Facebook on LinkedIn