The Art Gallery

Well, this was the big moment. All of my efforts from the past month built up to this final week. Artists were continually dropping off their pieces (or failed to do so and I had to track them down). When one woman dropped hers off, she casually mentioned how her husband would be happy to have his jazz band play at the event for FREE. Of course, we took her up on that offer, regardless of the high ceilings and other obstacles that could arise - npo really take advantage of anything that is offered to them for free.

The landlord was extremely generous to us and made sure we had everything we needed, including having the building cleaned the week of the gallery. More or less, everything seemed to eventually just fall into place and work out. Thank you God for answering my worrisome prayers!

The set up began Thursday morning as Jackie and I ran around from place to place picking up things to help with the displays.

We didn't want to keep all of the art pieces set up in the front room, since there is a big window at the front of the building, so we mostly set up tables, grid walls and easels that day, anticipating a full Friday of setting up. Sure enough, it was. I actually spent most of the day at the gallery by myself setting up.

It was quite interesting trying to figure out the most aesthetically-pleasing display, seeing how I have absolutely NO experience as an artist (other than making various crafts for people as gifts and doing different kiddie art).

I managed to make it look decently appealing (if I do say so myself...) with some suggestions and answers once Jackie got there. My supervisor's (Katrina) husband has connections and was able to allow us to borrow a button maker machine for the evening, so that was a hit with people of all ages (including myself). I also put up many of the crafts from the Westside Farmers' Market from the past few weeks.

The musicians began to set up beforehand, the food and refreshments were set out - all that was missing was a crowd! It wasn't long after 6:00 when people began to show up.

The crowd was very diverse - some were the artists who submitted pieces or other local artists who were interested, some were those who simply appreciate art and enjoy First Friday Rochester (open art galleries across the city on the first Friday of every month), some were neighborhood members who knew about the exciting event and still others were simply walking by and were curious about what could possibly be happening in this vacant storefront. Overall, we had over 130 visitors in less than three hours! It was so rewarding to see everything come together and see how community members were quite enthusiastic about the event and truly enjoyed themselves. Success :)

Healthy Blocks Staff!