Arty Parties: Your Guide to November’s First Friday in Denver

The monthly First Friday celebrations that take place around Denver are some of the city’s most popular events, and this month’s First Friday falls during Denver Arts Week, an annual celebration of the Mile High City’s cultural scene that will bring more than 600 art events to the city from November 7-16 (we highlight ten of those events here).

The focus on creative festivity this week makes now a great time to visit art galleries and get in touch with the city’s creativity, and Denver Arts Week kicks off at 5:30 p.m. Friday, November 7, at Su Teatro Cultural & Performing Arts Center, where speakers from organizer Visit Denver and more will make opening remarks as First Friday also gets started.

First Friday events draw thousands of people looking to shop, eat, browse galleries and immerse themselves in the arts scene of the Art District on Santa Fe, the River North Art District (RiNo), Tennyson Street Cultural District, 40 West Arts District in Lakewood and more.

November’s First Friday is November 7, and each month, Westword lists some of the most interesting shows opening, plus ongoing shows worth a visit.

What is the First Friday Art Walk in Denver?

First Friday is a largely unofficial event celebrating community, culture and art on the first Friday of every month. Thousands come to the metro area’s art districts to view art, visit galleries, meet artists and browse street vendors selling handmade wares and food.

What Time Does First Friday Start in Denver?

First Friday events start at different times in different art districts.

• Art District on Santa Fe: 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
• RiNo: 6 to 9 p.m.
• Tennyson Street: 6 to 10 p.m.
• 40 West Arts District: 6 to 9 p.m.

Where is First Friday in Denver?

Art District on Santa Fe: Spans from West 13th Avenue to Alameda Avenue and Kalamath Street to Inca Street. The bulk of the galleries are in a walkable area between Fifth and 11th avenues.

RiNo: Most galleries are on Blake, Walnut, Larimer and Lawrence streets between Broadway and Downing Street.

Tennyson Street: Along Tennyson Street in the Berkeley neighborhood in northwest Denver.

40 West Arts District: Lamar Station Plaza, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood

Other popular art gallery locations include the 1400-1500 blocks of South Pearl Street, and arts areas in Englewood, Littleton and Arvada.

Are There First Friday Public Transportation Options in Denver?

At the start of this year, the Regional Transportation District added a new ART District Connector bus route. The route connects pockets of some of Denver’s most visited cultural sites, including the Art District on Santa Fe, Denver Theatre District and RiNo Arts District.

The route serves the Baker, Five Points and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods. Earlier this year, Westword tested out the route.

What Can I See During First Friday in November?

There are new shows opening all over town on First Friday weekend. Here are some of the most intriguing:

Glimpses of Reality Aquatical
First Friday: November 7, 5-9 p.m.; Show reception: November 14, 5-9 p.m.; Show on view through December 7
931 Gallery, 931 Santa Fe Drive
In this colorful show by artist Terry Decker, Decker hopes to show the vanishing reality of marine life. Various “Aquatical” works are a record of what was once a thriving, vibrant aquatic world that has been “diminished by humans to the point of unrelenting mayhem and toxic extinction.”

Between Here and There
First Friday: November 7, 6-9 p.m.; Opening reception: Friday, November 14, 6-9 p.m.; Show on view through November 30
D’art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
D’art Gallery will showcase its satellite members during Denver Arts week. The featured artists come from seven different states, with many representing various regions across Colorado. Each artist offers a distinctive voice and vision, resulting in a vibrant and diverse exhibition of contemporary art.

Dylan Griffith: Enjoy the Mystery
First Friday: November 7, 6-10 p.m., Show on view through November 29
Alto Gallery, 1900 35th Street, Suite B
Enjoy the Mystery is a solo exhibition of colorful and mythical drawings by artist Dylan Griffith.

Biyáál
First Friday: November 7, 12-6 p.m.; Artist talk: November 8, 1-2:30 p.m.; Show on view through January 3
Union Hall, 1750 Wewatta Street
Biyáál is a debut family exhibition featuring the work of JayCee, Randall and Wayne Beyale. The title of the show comes from the Navajo translation of the family name, Beyale, and the exhibition traces an intergenerational relationship to the Nightway ceremonial cycle, a
foundational element of Diné healing and storytelling traditions.

International Photography by Jeff Fierberg
First Friday and opening/artist reception: November 7, 6-9 p.m.; Show on view through December 20
Pulse Visual Art, 3256 Walnut Street
A collection of works from renowned photographer Jeff Fierberg is on display in RiNo. The show features Fierberg’s favorite pieces from his travels during the past five years to places like Amsterdam, Mexico, India, Italy, Japan, Korea and more.

The Past Calling
Opening Weekend: Friday, November 7, and Saturday, November 8, 6-10 p.m.
SP_CE 13 Contemporary Art Gallery, 3157 South Broadway, Englewood
The Past Calling features a series of works by Ryan McNurney, in which McNurney reflects on the distance past, capturing payphones sometimes days before they have been removed from their locations forever. Through unique characteristics and surroundings, a common and inanimate object is personified in the show.

Under Pressure
Opening: November 6; Reception: November 8, 5-8:30 p.m.; Show on view through November 30
Valkarie Gallery, 445 South Saulsbury, Lakewood
Under Pressure features works by Maria Sheets and Christy Lynne Seving, confronting the tensions and uncertainties of the world through portraiture, abstraction and collaborative works.

It Comes in Waves
First Friday: November 7, 5-7 p.m.; Show reception: December 10, 5-8 p.m.; Show on view through December 31
The People’s Building, 9995 East Colfax, Aurora
It Comes in Waves is an exhibition by and about Coloradans living with Long COVID. Through a combination of illustrations by incarcerated people and mixed media work by Colorado artists, the show captures the resilience of those whose lives were permanently changed by the virus.

Gary Simmons: Rush
Opening: November 8, 2-7 p.m.; Show on view through May 9
Cookie Factory, 425 West 4th Avenue
The Cookie Factory‘s latest show features the work of Gary Simmons, known for using erasure as both a material process and a conceptual strategy. Recognized his unconventional use of the blackboard, Simmons brings the medium into the exhibition space, drawing with chalk and partially erasing it by hand, commenting on history, imposed identities and a liberated vision of the future.

Ongoing Shows Worth a Visit

Archive 192
Through November 15
Colorado Photographic Arts Center, 1200 Lincoln Street, Suite 111
Explore a century of experimental abstraction by women photographers through rare prints, books, and ephemera from Archive 192. The exhibit includes work by artists such as Bernice Abbott, Florence Henri, Guerrilla Girls, Tina Modotti, Annie Leibovitz and more.

How Fargo Can You Go?
Through November 15
The Lab on Santa Fe, 840 Santa Fe Drive
How Fargo Can You Go? is an art tribute to the Coen Brothers’ cinematic spirit and a juried show led by Denver-based artist Rick Dallago. The show features more than twenty artists from across the nation who have creatively interpreted the themes, characters and distinctive storytelling style that define the Coen Brothers’ cinematic universe.

A Soul’s Journey
Through November 15
Bitfactory Gallery, 815 Santa Fe Drive
A Soul’s Journey displays the transcendent work of Hayakawa, an artist who was born in Tokyo, Japan.

Sculptural Ceramics by Margaret Bohls
Through December 26
Plinth Gallery, 3520 Brighton Boulevard
Plinth Gallery rounds out this year of exhibitions with a display of sculptural ceramics by Margaret Bohls, an associate professor of art at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Plinth will showcase her “Bucchero” collection of black and white coil-built stoneware from her “Italian” series, which is based on an examination of several types of historical ceramics produced on the Italian peninsula. “I strive to identify a set of physical, formal attributes of these objects that visually communicate something about the culture that produced them or the era during which they were created,” Bohls says. “I do this through a close visual examination of the objects and by making drawings of the objects. In these drawings, I attempt to distill the objects down to what I consider to be their critical visual and formal characteristics. These drawings become the basis for the creation of a series of ceramic forms of my own.”

CO Transplant
Through January
The Storeroom, storefront window at 1700 Vine Street
Centered around pop-art iconography, this exhibit features the work of Henry Tucker and uses imperfect ceramics to highlight some of the key icons of Colorado, featuring brands like Snarf’s and Tattered Cover. Tucker, who lives in Denver, is from Australia.

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