First Friday Art Walk -- Kent, OH

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Last Friday night was the inaugural First Friday Art Walk in Downtown Kent presented by Main Street Kent, Acorn Alley, SOA Collection and Gallery, and Troppus Projects. The event ran from 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. and after a stormy afternoon the weather luckily cleared out in time for the start. All participating businesses stay open on art walk nights until at least 8:00 p.m. so that art walkers can "enjoy refreshments, view artist demonstrations, and participate in activities throughout the downtown district..."

Participating locations:
-F.J. Kluth Gallery
-Standing Rock Cultural Arts
-Each + Every**
-Scribbles Coffee**
-Empire**
-Downtown Gallery
-McKay Bricker Framing
-Melissa Campbell Studio**
-Troppus Projects**
-Group 10 Gallery
-Kent State Hotel**

**Locations we stopped at last night during the art walk.

We arrived around 6:00 p.m. from Akron and ended up at the Kent State Hotel which was serving cheese and had an art gallery set up. I recommend starting at Troppus Projects, that's where we picked up our map and there was a list of what each location had going on whether it was a showing or an activity.



At Troppus, artist Kelly Dietrick, had opened up both her gallery and work space for art walk attendees to check out. We sipped a refreshment and walked through the new space (just opened earlier this year) and then worked on the art activity that was set out. As an homage to the work of the two Kent State students, Noelle Armitage & Katelyn Evans, who were displaying their work "The Cut Outs" at Troppus, we utilized scissors to create cut-out works of art.






Our works of art.





I'm not sure what ultimately is going to happen to those pieces, but it was nice at least for the evening to contribute to the community's "creative vision" on display via collage.


  

After stopping at Troppus Projects we walked down to Scribbles Coffee, because they were featuring a stained glass latte for the night.

   

We loved seeing this sort of creativity in the presentation. Not only that, the tables were covered with brown packing paper, with a supply of crayons at each table, so customers could share doodles and musings with other passing patrons. Since it was May 4, they also offered a "Force" (Star Wars) themed drink.

   

We looped back down N. Water Street to stop at Each + Every, then headed over to Empire and Melissa Campbell Studio. Empire had a "body painting" demonstration that happened too soon in the evening for us to attend, though they also had a henna artist giving demonstrations for most of the night.



We thought this was a great first event and we're looking forward to seeing how it grows. It's nice to go into spaces in Kent that we don't typically get to see, and if you're looking for art this is a great way to support local artists. The next art walk dates are:

6/1
7/6
8/3
9/7
10/5
11/2
12/7

There are plenty of locations to visit too, if you started at 5:00 p.m. you could probably visit all of them without difficulty. We were taking our time last time and weren't able to be there right at 5:00.

Ohio Wanderlust Rating for the new First Friday Art Walk in Kent:


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