Walk the Walk

Why do we love First Fridays on Santa Fe Drive? Because they're really just artsy block parties, blessed with a communal sensibility that comes together monthly in a culture clash of diverse artist enclaves — highbrow, lowbrow, commercial and committed — and swirling humanity. To that end, two of the...

By Susan Froyd

July 5, 2007

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Why do we love First Fridays on Santa Fe Drive? Because they're really just artsy block parties, blessed with a communal sensibility that comes together monthly in a culture clash of diverse artist enclaves — highbrow, lowbrow, commercial and committed — and swirling humanity. To that end, two of the district's more grassroots venues — the ambitious Nine10Arts studio colony and gallery (910 Santa Fe) and that grizzled veteran, the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council (772 Santa Fe), offer compelling reasons for strolling the street tonight.

Inside Out 2007, an annual Nine10Arts community exhibition showcasing works by the more than 25 artists who work (and in some cases, live) there, has stretched out this year to include both the formal gallery show and an in-house studio tour during its opening reception, from 5 to 10 p.m. And CHAC greets the dead of summer with an eye-opener: Artistas Libre!, a bright, shiny member show featuring lead artist Danny Vigil (whose last show there was so popular that there were actually people waiting at the door to get in and buy some art) and a splendidly varied group of six emerging and established Denver artists. That party runs from 6 to 10 p.m.

Inside Out continues through August 4, and Artistas Libre! hangs through July 28; for details, call Nine10Arts, 303-815-1779, or CHAC, 303-571-0440.
Oct. 3-27, 2007

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

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