AL MILLER, center, and Gary Lawless, at right, lead the 2011 All-Species Parade along Maine Street in Brunswick. This year’s parade will coincide with the star t of the Second Friday ArtWalk season on May 11. “El Camino,” at right, a painting by Maria Castellano-Usery, and fiber art by Cathy Worthington will be available for Second Friday ArtWalkers to view.
COURTESY OF CONNIE LUNDQUIST
Organized by Five Rivers Arts Alliance, ArtWalk is a free, self-guided once-a-month tour of area art galleries, private artists’ studios, art museums, local businesses that exhibit artwork, and other cultural venues. The monthly celebration aims to be family friendly.
Choose your own viewing route using the free Second Friday Art- Walk map and guide (available at venues along the art walk trail) or look for the 8-foot long orange Art- Walk banners that mark each participating venue.
The art on view at the 44 participating locations reflects a wide variety of media, ranging from oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolors, mixed media and photography to sculpture, assemblages of found objects, collage, fiber, ceramics, driftwood and more.
Stepping into a museum, art gallery, business or studio to see these art works is like opening a present. You never know what surprise you will find inside.
If the words “art walk” intimidate you, don’t let them. According to Second Friday ArtWalk coordinator Connie Lundquist, “many artists work in isolation. When we open our studios to the public, we do not expect everyone who walks through the door to buy an artwork. I learn as much from the people who see my art as I do when I am making it. I enjoy the interaction and answering questions about my art.”
Lundquist is not alone. Most artists enjoy the feedback they get from the public during an art walk evening. After all, art is just another way to communicate. Looking at the creative output of an artist is like peeking into a visual diary to see what is on that artist’s mind.
There is something special about getting to know the artist whose work you may decide to purchase. And who knows, you — or your children — might be inspired to go home and do something creative yourself.
For a special treat, venture into Fort Andross, where more than 15 artist studios normally closed to the public will be open for viewing. Look in on Points of View Gallery at the Brunswick Business Center, 18 Pleasant St., or Spindleworks at 7 Lincoln St. Local artists who do not live or have studios in the downtown area will be exhibited in group shows at three pop-up locations — the Brunswick Inn (on Park Row across from the Brunswick Mall), the Captain Daniel Stone Inn on Water Street and at the Lincoln Building, 98 Maine St. (upstairs).
Also include Maine Fiber Arts on Main Street in Topsham and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, two venues that bookend the north and south boundaries of the art walk zone.
Brunswick’s Maine Street, always festive during Second Friday ArtWalk, will be even livelier on May 11 in the aftermath of the All Species Parade, which is scheduled to kick off from the Mall at 4:30 p.m. In fact, many of Art- Walk’s exhibiting artists are parade participants, sporting fanciful handmade costumes. If you plan to attend ArtWalk, double your pleasure by watching or being in the parade as well.
Art walks are a successful phenomenon in small towns and large cities all over the United States. Brunswick is no exception. Artists play a significant role in the town’s economy and are helping to revitalize the downtown area by renting studio space there and by holding art walks that generate spin-off business for local restaurants, bars and shops.
Future dates for the 2012 season of Second Friday Art Walks are June 8, July 13, Aug. 10, Sept. 14 and Oct. 12. For more information about 2nd Friday ArtWalk, contact Five Rivers Arts Alliance at www.5raa.org.
This is a not-to-be-missed, rain-or-shine event.
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