Happy Anniversary First Friday Artwalk!   Friday, February 3 marks the one year anniversary since the Artwalk, the ever popular downtown stroll of galleries, studios, restaurants and local businesses, made its debut in downtown Elizabeth City February of 2011.  It all began with the idea to get people downtown to enjoy the rich artistic culture our local community has to offer. 

It was just a year ago when Natalie Peel called Dru Thompson of Red Rabbit Art Gallery and Debbie Malenfant at City Wine Sellar and said, let’s have a First Friday ARTWalk.  Together the three collaborated to form the first First Friday ARTWalk evening branding the event by placing each other’s logo’s on marketing material.  “It was the beginning of something great”, said Natalie Peel, Director of Marketing & Visual Arts at AOA.  From the start, EC was hooked.  Restaurants, shops, coffee shops and more local studios were ready to participate.  Each month new venues and new artists were added to the event.  Elizabeth City Downtown, Inc. was asked to take over the event in the Spring and ECCVB came alongside with the financial support to help take the event to the next level.  A new logo was approved and Dylan Wreggelsworth played an important role by setting up ecncart.com as the place to go to find out who was participating, and where they are located.  Charlotte Underwood, Director of the ECCVB says, “It’s hard to believe that it has been almost a year since Alexis Joyner, Art Department Chair at Elizabeth City State University started us off and running as the featured artist at AoA with our new and exciting project – First Friday ARTWalk.  Then came the fun of working on the logo and everyone being so pleased with it.  It is an event that everyone looks forward to each month.” 

So many people came together to help make this a successful event for our downtown and our entire community.  Soon Port Discover, Serenity Studio Arts and Girls Inc added kids’ Art nights where you can drop your children off and enjoy the ARTWalk.  Debbie Malenfant, as one of the founding members says, “I think Artwalk was a super-cool idea and, obviously, a lot of other people felt the same because it was popular from the very first one. It's a great way to combine the celebration of art and artists with the overall culture of our neat downtown businesses.”  

The First Friday ARTwalk now happens every first Friday of every month.  Studios, galleries, businesses and restaurants downtown open their doors from about 5:30 to 7:30ish that night to host a local artist who displays, and offers for sale, their unique artwork.  Several venues provide free refreshments and it is an opportunity to bring excellent exposure to both the artist and the venue, as well as provide a fun social outing.  Artists include painters, potters, jewelry makers, musicians and so much more.  The addition of Encore Theatre Company as an artist has helped expand the inclusion of theatre arts as well. "1st Fridays are great!” says Dru Thompson of Red Rabbit Art Gallery; “The downtown feels like a party with people and energy. The Red Rabbit Art Gallery has been here for eight and a half years and there are a lot of new faces in the gallery as a result of the ArtWalks. Let's keep the party going!"

 “The event is the culmination of the recent growth in art spots in downtown Elizabeth City. From the waterfront to Road Street, folks seem to be willing to walk Main Street in an effort to view art, visit with friends and enjoy a casual Friday evening in River City, even if the weather isn’t ideal,” said Robert Kelly-Goss in an earlier Daily Advance article.  Kelly-Goss has also been a featured artist in the Artwalk.

 Artist Kelly Cameron opened the doors of her new gallery/studio next to Selig’s Jewelry for the second ever art walk in March after first opening the space for “Kelly’s Color Studio” three weeks prior.  “Last year on the first "First Friday" I was not open yet,” Cameron stated.  “I opened officially on February 8th. I have participated in all of the First Fridays since, though, and I've found that I always have good traffic. Often a person who sees something that they like will return later in the week or month to make a purchase or inquire about a commission, etc. I've always felt that the exposure is wonderful, often the people that come are people who are otherwise engaged during the normal workday, so it's an opportunity for me to reach out to different folks every month. “

 We are expecting another wonderfully successful ARTwalk this coming Friday.  Thanks to Cindy Williams of MMT Printers, we are also now able to offer another tool for the artwalk- a rack card available to pick up at each artwalk venue that lists all of the participants and their location for that night.  At the writing of this article, the participants of this coming anniversary ARTwalk are: Arts of the Albemarle hosting Paintings by Phil Cameron, Pottery by John Peel – 2^nd time they have exhibited together; In the 516 Gallery, Paintings by Lyn Jenkins & Lucy Gordon; Red Rabbit Art Gallery hosting Collage Artist, Julie Long; Muddy Waters Coffee Shop hosting River City Beadworks, Courtney Birdsall; Shay Leslie hosting Photography & Mixed Media, Paula FitzPatrick; Simply Divine Fabrics & Things hosting African American Quilt Exhibit; The City Wine Seller hosting Music Night w/ Open Jam Sessions; Page After Page Bookstore hosting Don Vick, Jeweler; Serenity Studio Arts & Artists Collective hosting Outer Space Exhibit; Port Discover hosting Kids Night; In Stitches hosting Vince Pollack, Photography; and The Cupcakery hosting Encore Theatre company. Kelly’s Color Studio won’t be open for this month’s walk because she’ll be across the street supporting brother Phil Cameron’s art at Arts of the Albemarle.

 Peel hopes to make May’s FF artwalk the best yet with the unveiling of Elizabeth City’s first Public Art Project.  The art project involves  moth boats and local artists, so don’t miss it, it will be an exciting one too!