Few people would disagree that monthly art nights are a boon to municipalities, local businesses, the public and artists. But they can have a down side, too, such as presenter burnout, the difficulty of actually perusing a show amid hundreds of festive gallerygoers, slow trolley service and so on.
In the Capital Region, Saratoga Springs started the tradition several years ago with a designated Thursday every month. Soon, the idea spread to Albany (where it’s called 1st Friday), Schenectady (Art Night) and Troy (Troy Night Out), as well as Ballston Spa and maybe others. Most of these events take place once a month on a Friday; the ones in the three bigger cities are arranged not to conflict, so an avid art lover can rotate from town to town and do a gallery crawl almost every Friday of the month, which is a pretty fun way to kick off the weekend.
As an exhibiting artist for many years, an on-and-off presenter, a sometime critic and an eager art viewer, I can see many angles to the Art Night format. As with all consumer activities, it’s a better draw to have more choices, so the many events available on a typical Art Night (Albany boasted upwards of 20 this month) pretty much guarantee a large crowd. But the dilemmas start when you confront all those choices — no one short of a marathon runner could do them all in the four hours allotted. So realistically one must choose four or five shows and try to get to those. And even that can be a challenge when traveling on foot (especially if it happens to be raining, snowing or 95 degrees), which is where the trolley idea comes in.
On a recent Friday (Dec. 5th), I drove from work in Schenectady to downtown Albany and parked my car on the unpopular end of Lark Street. From there, it was a few minutes of walking to get to the busy part of Lark, but I decided instead to go downtown a few blocks and check out the Albany Institute of History & Art — a popular destination on 1st Friday, because it’s free then, rather than $10. The somewhat stuffy Institute was full of good cheer and hosting a surprising panoply of events, including a gallery talk by the adventurous painter Marcia Clark. But I didn’t have time for that. I took a quick look around, promised myself I’d go back for a better look another day (which I did — look for a report on that in this blog on Monday), and moved on.
My next destination was further downtown, at Albany Center Gallery (www.albanycentergallery.org), where the official opening reception for its annual Members Show was taking place. Full disclosure: I’m on the gallery’s exhibits committee, and I have a piece in the show. So I sort of had to be there for most of the night, which brings up dilemma No. 2 — for the presenters and the artists involved in the shows, when everything is happening on the same night, you’re stuck missing most of it because you’re tied down to your home spot. And this is a significant issue, as a big chunk of the audience for local art is made up of local artists.
After a fine time partying at ACG, I decided I was ready to go back up to Lark and catch what I could of the rest of the night’s offerings. For those not familiar with 1st Friday, the majority of the events are centered on Lark Street, but it also includes multiple venues elsewhere - details available at www.1stfridayalbany.org. As luck would have it, the free city trolley had just pulled up, so I was able to catch a ride up the hill, jumping out at the second stop in front of the Upstate Artists Guild, which is centrally situated and sponsors the monthly event. (upstateartistsguild.org).
A quick look inside revealed this season’s UAG smorgasbord of very many artists presented salon style. As befits its name, the gallery is perhaps the most democratic anywhere, and the offerings cover a wide gamut of media, styles and abilities. But the energy is always positive there, and it looked like people were having a good time and even buying some art. Actually, the red dots were flying at ACG as well, and at my next stop, Amrose Sable Gallery. This is something that never ceases to amaze and delight me — that people will pull out their wallets and buy art. Perhaps if it was a quiet weekday afternoon, this wouldn’t happen as readily — people might be self-conscious. I don’t know, but I suspect the Art Night energy can be contagious.
So, on to Amrose Sable I went (www.amrosesablegallery.com). There, the art — and the crowd — was more sophisticated, but was also hung high, low and close together in honor of the season. (Galleries all over the world pack in lots of smaller and/or cheaper art at this time of year to encourage gift purchases.) I liked the show as far as those things go, and so, apparently, did the many visitors, at least one of whom was somewhat drunkenly declaring Ken Ragsdale a genius. Gallery owner Elizabeth Dubben, elegant beyond her years as always, glowed calmly amid the chaos and offered beverages. I drank some water and then headed home to a late dinner, sated art-wise.
