April 18,2006
FEATURESFirst Friday art walk can help find creative side
The First Friday Art Walk in downtown Phoenix is a great way to experience the diversity of the valley all in one night.
From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the first Friday of every month, the area between Indian School Road to Buchanan Street and 12th Street to 17th Avenue is buzzing with people.
People are free to walk or drive, in and out of the 90 spaces that are open for free admission to check out art displays, listen to musicians, buy food, make crafts, and many other things.
There is an absolute melting pot of people that attend the First Fridays because the event is geared towards anyone who is interested in surveying the talent and creativity the Phoenix area has to offer.
One of the spaces, Modified Arts, located on 7th Street and Roosevelt, has paintings and sculptures on display by various artists. Everyone was free to roam the venue and check out the art, most of which was for sale, while listening to a live jazz band performing on the indoor stage.
In the pathway from one gallery to another, there are hundreds of booths set up by hundreds of people.
Caricaturists, painters, rock bands, religious groups, political activists, and people selling homemade accessories occupy these booths.
Right outside of Modified Arts, a man named Nathan Bocchicchio had set up a metallic array of welded sculptures he had created. Sitting behind a bathtub that had been sawed in half, with bent forks and spoons welded to it, he sat and clanged away with drumsticks, creating a noise similar to a steel drum.
Proudly displaying his homemade, all-bronze electric guitar, Bocchicchio said, “I’ve been doing this my whole life. I’ve always just been putting things together in different ways, but in recent years I’ve been able to use welding as a new way. I have set up here for about three years.”
First Friday has been happening since the mid-1990s. A local non-profit organization called Artlink started bringing Phoenix art spaces, music venues, cafes, and individual artists’ studios together to open up their spaces as an annual event known as the Art Detour. It eventually became a monthly activity and has experienced major growth since those days.
In its 1998 season, First Friday had 13 spaces open for participation. That number has now grown immensely, signifying how vital the arts have become to Phoenix city life.
On the First Friday of April, a company called Phoenix Photo-Graphics rented a U-Haul truck and parked it on the side of Roosevelt Street.
Hanging their works of photography on the inside of the truck, they allowed people to walk up the ramp and inside the truck to admire or buy the photos, just like an art space. The company features photographs taken by local talents Scott Sherman, Enrique Garcia, and Monica Vega.
“This is a really great way for us to share our work. It’s just like having our own indoor art space for the night. I’m surprised more people haven’t caught on.” said Enrique Garcia, co-founder of Phoenix Photo-Graphics.
A music/art venue called Holga’s had a stage set up on the sidewalk in front of their building where local solo acts like Jumbo Jr. and Alcoholiday performed.
Alcoholiday consists of Braden McCall, who plays guitar and keyboard while he sings along with electro-beats being produced by his Apple computer.
“It’s an awesome chance for exposure because there are hundreds of people that just walk by and stop to hear you,” McCall said.
Volume 43, Issue 13. Today is
Tolan Thissell and Stephanie Flood inquire about a
photo that Kay Braun has for sale at the First Friday Art Walk.
photo by Amanda Smith