This story is part of the Arts and Culture Reporting Corps, sponsored by the Springfield Regional Arts Council.
When I was a college student and newly minted 21-year-old sometime in the early 2000s, attending First Friday Art Walk felt special and sophisticated. An evening of meandering from cool place to cool place, seeing and being seen.
“Don’t mind me; I’m an adult enjoying a plastic cup filled with the finest boxed wine and cheese cubes stacked on a cocktail toothpick.”
First Friday Art Walk has been a downtown Springfield tradition for 24 years now. After some unfortunate but unavoidable setbacks in recent years — fewer in-person events during the pandemic and the ongoing road construction downtown last summer — the Springfield Regional Arts Council is reenergizing FFAW as a monthly celebration of the downtown arts district. You’re invited to be part of this next chapter.
The vision extends beyond any single event.
“Through events like FFAW and Artsfest, the Springfield Regional Arts Council is trying to do more than just build events; we're helping to craft a destination, a place where art, community and commerce can come together and be draw for visitors and locals alike,” said Sarah Abele, SRAC’s director of programming and development Sarah Abele.
The new FFAW season officially kicks off with this month’s event on Feb. 2. This free event is a self-guided tour of visual art, live music and interactive experiences at downtown galleries and other venues. Part of what makes Art Walk unique is the opportunity to experience art in approachable spots like a bookstore, brewery or breakfast cafe.
Music and community bring people downtown
One unique spot on the Art Walk map is Hold Fast Brewing, located at 235 N. Kimbrough Ave.
Carol and Susan McLeod are the founding sisters behind Hold Fast, Springfield’s first women-owned brewery located in the historic Fire Station No. 1 building. Since opening in summer 2019, Hold Fast has become a downtown destination for folks to gather and enjoy craft beer, live music on their large patio and a rotating selection of food trucks parked outside.
Hold Fast’s Books & Brews book club draws dozens to monthly meet-ups and boasts more than 1,000 members on Facebook. And music events like Vinyl Night, a delightfully low-key listening party, are a regular feature on the Hold Fast calendar. An Art Walk partnership makes perfect sense for them.
“Being involved in the community is so important to us and we want to support the arts any way that we can,” Carol McLeod said. “We wanted to be involved because it brings people downtown, and we can only have a successful downtown if everybody participates and you have different and unique options for people to visit.”
McLeod hopes that Hold Fast can be a welcoming hangout spot after people have visited other FFAW venues.
“We’re trying to extend the excitement for people,” she said.
Shaking things up with art
Randy Bacon was an influential part of the organizing group at the very beginning of Art Walk in the early 2000s.
“There was this attitude of ‘We’re going to shake Springfield a little bit and do something that’s just purely about art,’” Bacon said. “It had never been done before, so we thought let's shake it up as much as we can. Let's bring artists that we really like, and let's see what happens.”
At first, the crowds were small, but then word of mouth took over and the event grew, featuring visual artists like Julie Blackmon and Brad Noble, and musicians like Yo La Tengo, Cat Power and St. Vincent putting on one-of-a-kind shows at Bacon’s Monarch Art Factory.
The novelty of performing a show in an art gallery appealed to both the artists and audiences — the feeling of “this is special and might not happen again.”
Showcasing visual art beyond art gallery walls made Art Walk unique. Bacon says some of the best shows can be in a coffee shop or a brewery, approachable venues that open the door for people who might not see themselves in traditional art spaces.
“Now it’s 25 years later and it’s hard for me to believe,” Bacon said, “But looking back, I still have that energy toward art.”
Bacon now has a studio on Historic Commercial Street and he’s working to create new opportunities to build community and showcase artists through C-Art, an art market that will take place on June 2 this year.
‘People crave experience‘
“Now more than ever, I think people crave experience,” said Bacon. “Art brings the community together to experience something that projects truth and emotion, that makes you think and makes you feel, and when the night’s over you think, ‘Wow, that was a great evening. Let’s do it again.’”
If you haven’t attended an Art Walk in a while, in several years, or ever, now is the time to take part. The event has doubled in size since 2020 and continues to grow each month. Here’s a small sample of what’s in store for February at 16 participating locations:
- Hold Fast Brewing: Live music from mother-daughter duo Allie & Grace and El Maseton Lechonera food truck, 7:00 p.m.
- Park Central Library: Features live painting alongside their collaborative exhibit In The Weeds, 6:30-9:00 p.m.
- Creamery Arts Center: Opening reception of You Should Know exhibit featuring member artists and live music, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
- Sculpture Walk: View the current “museum without walls” collection of public art before the new exhibit launches in April.
For more information, visit the Arts Council website. There you’ll find a full schedule and a venue map on the Arts Council website.
