August First Friday also falls on Colorado's 149th birthday. What better way to celebrate than by going to an arty party and supporting the state's artists?
The popular community event in the Art District on Santa Fe has recently undergone some changes that require vendors to register and pay for a booth.
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.
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 First Friday 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. In February, Westword tested out the route.
What Can I See During First Friday in August?
There are new shows opening all over town on First Friday weekend. Here are some of the most intriguing:CHAC Members Showcase
First Friday: August 1, 6-10 p.m.; Show on display through September 28
CHAC Gallery, 834 Santa Fe Drive
CHAC Gallery is holding its semi-annual Members Showcase featuring the gallery's member artists and their work. The gallery also plans to open its gift shop on First Friday.
"There is a Word of Lightning in the Grass" by John Brooks is part of Queer Perspectives.
Michael Warren Contemporary
First Friday: August 1, 6-9 p.m.; Show on display through August 30
Michael Warren Contemporary, 760 Santa Fe Drive
Queer Perspectives is a group exhibit featuring work by Hank Ehrenfried, Dylan Hurwitz, John Brooks, Jess Dugan, Liz Hickok, Matt Lifson, Jianlun Tong and Sherry Wiggins. The show is a celebration of current work created by queer artists, leaning into themes of identity.
A piece in Johns' What Remains.
Talia Johns
First Friday: August 1; Show on display through August 24
931 Gallery, 931 Santa Fe Drive
Manifesting Clutter by Tracey Russell and What Remains by Talia Johns are two concurrent solo shows exploring themes of material presence, psychological space and transformative perception. Russell, a local abstract artist, elevates the overlooked in her exhibit, taking inspiration in mundane objects like paper, containers and towels. Through sketches drawn from life and translated into expressive paintings, clutter becomes a visual language of patterns, colors and lines in Manifesting Clutter. Meanwhile, fiber artist Johns' What Remains is an introspective and materially diverse exhibition investigating memory, conflict and endurance. Johns uses materials like shadow-cut panels, wire forms and collaged color studies.
Echoes of Resilience: Works Seldom Seen
First Friday: August 1, 6-9 p.m.; Meet the Artists: August 15, 6-8 p.m.; Show on display through September 6
Access Gallery, 909 Santa Fe Drive
Rarely seen works by Access Gallery's artists, shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pieces offer an intimate look into the artists' creative journey in 2020 and 2021, individual resilience and connection through art.
Mike Keene says his sculptures "are a celebration of the beauty and mystery of the natural world."
Next Gallery
First Friday Opening Reception: August 1; Show on display through August 17
Next Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
Artist Mike Keene presents On the Brink, a display of his ceramic sculptures, which he says "are a celebration of the
beauty and mystery of the natural world." Keene's sculptures contain original carvings and hand-built clay constructions using multiple techniques and textures created with unique carved roller stamps and painted glaze finishes. See the colorful, whimsical and often humorous works at Next Gallery.
Susan McNeff Skokan creates vibrant imagery of waves through wool felt and photographs in this show at Next Gallery.
Next Gallery
First Friday Opening Reception: August 1; Show on display through August 17
Sound Ceremony: August 14; Live harpist: August 17
Next Gallery, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood
Colorado-based artist Susan McNeff Skokan presents Waves, a mixed media exhibit examining the way waves (of sorrow, delight, pain, etc.) move through us and through life. McNeff Skokan creates vibrant imagery through wool felt and photographs in this show at Next Gallery.
VAST, featuring artists Melody Epperson and Nicole Korbe, explores the expansive nature of Colorado prairie and western landscapes.
NKollectiv
First Friday: August 1, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Opening Reception: Saturday, August 2, 5-8 p.m.; Second Saturday Reception: August 9, 4-8 p.m.; Show on display through August 31
NKollectiv, 3485 South Broadway, Englewood
VAST, featuring artists Melody Epperson and Nicole Korbe, explores the expansive nature of Colorado prairie and western landscapes. Korbe's oil and wax landscapes alongside Epperson's monotypes combined with inks she handmade from plants foraged from the Colorado plains makes for a show worth seeing on Colorado's 149th birthday. “My artwork in VAST is inspired by my weekly visits to wide-open spaces,” Epperson explains. “Each piece highlights the subtle details of native plants and the presence they hold within the fields.”
The call for METAL invited artists to submit works that either highlight metal as a primary medium or depict subjects made of metal.
Cottonwood Center for the Arts
First Friday Opening Reception: August 1, 5-8 p.m.; Show on display through August 30
Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 E. Colorado Avenue, Colorado Springs
METAL is a juried community exhibit about metal's role in artwork throughout history. The call for this show invited artists to submit works that either highlight metal as a primary medium or depict subjects made of metal.
Ongoing Shows Worth a Visit
In Home, elementary, middle school and high school students along with other guest artists explore past, present and future concepts of what home means to them from memories to dreams.
DAVA
Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, 1405 Florence Street
Through August 18
In Home, elementary, middle school and high school students along with other guest artists explore past, present and future concepts of what home means to them from memories to dreams. In the creation of the exhibit, guest artist Samira Hemmat inspired high school students with her artistic excellence and her story and memories from her home country of Iran. DAVA teacher Amanda Graves Greer painted watercolor of all the homes she lived in, examining domestic memories and healing spaces. Middle school students added patterns and topics inspired by their home on handmade flowerpots, bowls, mugs or platters.
One of the works in Coming To America, A Nation of Immigrants at Niza Knoll Gallery.
Niza Knoll Gallery
Niza Knoll Gallery, 915 Santa Fe Drive
Through August 24
Gallerist and artist Niza Knoll is not one to shy away from important topics; previous shows at her gallery over the last 15 years have addressed politics, the pandemic and AI. For Coming To America, A Nation of Immigrants, Knoll invited local artists to create a showcase representing the tapestry of individuals from around the world who have made up the United States since its founding. The result is a mixed media exhibit including paintings, collages, sculptures and more.
Embedded: A Mid-Career Survey; Origin Stories; Past is Present is Past is Present
Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, 6901 Wadsworth Boulevard, Arvada
Through August 24
Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities’ Galleries are opening three exhibitions for the summer, which explore the past and present, and reality and fantasy. “My work explores human nature and struggle as it manifests itself in relation to contemporary society and the remains of the past,” says conceptual painter Melissa Furness, about her show Embedded. “I am interested in what one culture upholds as significant — objects and ideals that we revere versus those that we discard or discount as unimportant. What does what we throw away say about us as a people versus what we place on a pedestal or seek to preserve?”
St. Francis residents working on their collaboration piece with Emma Balder. The piece was displayed earlier this year at Understudy, and now it is part of Emmanuel Gallery's Made in Colorado exhibit.
Photography by Daniel Brenner and AAron On'veroz
Emmanuel Gallery, 1205 10th Street Plaza
Through September 12
Made in Colorado returns to showcase artists from all over the state, including the piece made by Emma Balder in collaboration with the residents of St. Francis Apartments. Juried by Larry Ossei-Mensah, the show at Emmanuel Gallery, which is part of the University of Colorado Denver's College of Arts & Media, is meant to highlight diverse and groundbreaking art made in the Centennial State.
Justice of the Piece brings together the voices of artists Lady Pink, Sydney G. James and Grow Love.
Ent Center for the Arts
Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 North Nevada Avenue, Colorado Springs
Through October 4
Justice of the Piece brings together the voices of artists Lady Pink, Sydney G. James and Grow Love, whose work navigates the intersections of resistance, reclamation, and collective healing through public murals and studio practice. Each artist, in their own way, reclaims the wall and canvas as a site of visibility and social justice, creating powerful visual affirmations in spaces often marked by erasure or exclusion.
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