Opinions Wanted ART Walk

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The Toxic Framer

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I am starting an art walk in our downtown area. My shop is located in Hanover, NH home of Dartmouth College.

My question is, has anyone else on the Grumble started one or are you part of one?

If you are part of one how has it gone for you and how long has it been running.

Any insight will be helpful in this process. I am working with my chamber and another marketing group.
 
Yes I have been a part of one, here's what they did what I would do.

One, they held theirs in November aimed at holiday shoppers. The problem is it's too cold to walk any where and it's dark. Other successful ones I have seen had them in the summer months, held on the the first Friday or some sort of regular easy to recall time like that. Its comfortable o walk around and still light out.

Two our organizers invite everyone to participate, everyone, every artist, every craft/gift shop, even in other towns 10 miles away. This scattered their effort, made the idea of "walking" anywhere inconceivable. So If you do it make it centralized with a specified area. I know their is a desire to be inclusive but at some point the effort is so watered down it is ineffective. Keep it tight and organized towards merchants only, my two cents.
 
Biddeford does an Art walk, same day every month. not sure if its first friday, but consistency is key. As is consistency. Oh and have it at the same day and time every month.

Don't do a one-of and think it'll work out for you, but by doing it every month you get people used to coming around.
 
Unfortunately my community is too small for something like that but a neighbouring city had one early in December that I wish I could have attended. Since they had a good website specifically for it, I thought I would share. Maybe it will give you some ideas.
http://www.artzoom.ca/
 
Hey Bob and Randy,
We are planing on this being a once a month first Saturday event.
I met someone who runs the First Friday Art Walk in Portland last July when I was up there visiting friends. Trying to find the card now.
I will check out the Biddeford one THANKS !
 
The 2 close knit communities here, Harbor Springs and Petoskey, both hold their own Art walks, or Gallery Walks. They have done this for about 10 years. Quite successful.

They are held in summer so it is comfortable for people to walk around the downtown district, and usually on a weekday evening so as not to conflict with weekend activities. Participating galleries pay a small fee to be included, and most will put out hors deurves of some kind. A large, enticing item (usually a painting) is given away at the end of the evening, and the participants must enter each gallery and have a card punched in order to qualify for the prize. Everyone meets back at a sponsored location at the designated time for the drawing and afterwards can mingle with food and libations. It has been successful.
 
Hey Toxic... South Bend, Indiana has had an event for the past seven years called "Art Beat". Very successful and involves all the galleries, museums, some musical venues, etc.

http://www.artbeatsouthbend.org/

http://www.ci.south-bend.in.us/events_detail_T44_R1082.asp

http://www.downtownsouthbend.com/news.php?id=47

A good friend of mine has headed up this succesful event for the last few years. I've PM'd you with her name and phone number and I'm sure she'd be happy to discuss it with you and share what has worked and what hasn't.
 
Gallery Walk here in downtown Sebring every 2nd Fri of every month except July and August ( too hot ).....does fairly well for the downtown artsy area.

We are out on the main highway and too far away to participate, but friends who have galleries in town do about 1/3 of thier monthly business on gallery walk night.
 
A downtown not far from here had an art walk once a month, and it was very successful and heavily promoted. Many of the other downtown stores would stay open after hours during the walk. That is until the economy tanked, and some of the newer galleries closed.
 
A good friend of mine has headed up this succesful event for the last few years. I've PM'd you with her name and phone number and I'm sure she'd be happy to discuss it with you and share what has worked and what hasn't.

Thanks so much Dave, I will be emailing her later today.
 
We have an Artscrawl in Albuquerque on a monthly basis. It's subdivided into smaller sections of the city, so the distance between galleries or whatever for any single Artscrawl event is not too large. Truthfully driving would still be necessary to hit all the galleries on the list. In fact it works pretty good and unless the weather is just awful there is good attendance. There is a business group that coordinates the Artscrawl events and to get yourself into the official promoted list requires a $200/year membership. There is also a citywide First Friday event that is usually tied in to gallery show openings, also well attended. And a successful Christmas walk in one of the hip shop oriented areas that works out well in spite of 30F evenings.
 
Our town is in the third incarnation of it's Art Walk, and we'll
see if this one sticks. For the past two, what it eventually devolved
into was a bunch of 'thrillers' going just to a few downtown shops
for the socializing, and no increase in sales. Plus, the shops put
money into extra staff and snack goodies. The woman for whom
I work tried it two different times and opted out with this third
version.

It's a First Friday in our town, as well, going from about May
to October. I'm glad our shop isn't open that night, as it gives
me a chance to bop around to other galleries. But I wonder how
they're doing with it. From what I've heard, not many sales,
so we'll see. They've also opened it up so that any winery
or eatery with 'for sale' art on the walls is considered one
of the destinations. In a way, I like that, but it can be a bit
frustrating for tourists. Nothing like walking four blocks to
a 'gallery', only to find that it's a cafe with the art on the wall
behind diners. 'Excuse me, would you four mind scooting
out of that booth for just a minute....'

I think things like this can work, but there has to be
a strong spirit of community enthusiasm around it,
and it takes awhile to gain momentum.
 
they have a wonderful little art walk in Sainte Genevieve Missouri.They do it the fourth friday every month with a different featured artist each month.The guy that handles it told me they grow a little every month.
 
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