Tonight, downtown Muncie will celebrate the local art scene with this month's First Thursday Gallery Walk.
On the first Thursday of every month, the city's art galleries host opening receptions for new featured artists. April's First Thursday event will be held from 5 to 8 p.m.
Phoebe Wantz, owner of Art & Soul by Phoebe, said there is a need for events like this in Muncie.
"Even if people don't have work to display, they can come and listen and experience art," she said.
Most places have the monthly artists speak at their First Thursday exhibits while refreshments are served and music is played. Other downtown galleries featured in this month's First Thursday are 111 Arts Gallery, Gallery 308 and The Artist Within. Other local businesses also display artwork including Blue Bottle Coffee Shop and Cortex Hair Center. Every exhibit is free to the public.
The Muncie arts community has gone through many ups and downs, and gallery owners are attempting to keep the culture alive.
STRUGGLING FOR THE ARTS
Despite the predicted high attendance due to the warm weather, tonight is a bittersweet First Thursday as one of the oldest art galleries in Muncie – Artworks – will be closing. A dozen former co-op members of Artworks will become a part of another gallery, The Artist Within. Tonight will be the members' first exhibit.
"It really breaks my heart," said Bob Hartley, owner of The Artist Within. "They've been there for nine years – since the beginning."
The former members of Artworks will be the featured monthly artists for The Artist Within with the exhibit "Member Artists Grand Opening." The gallery will also begin teaching classes while continuing to sell art after April.
Hartley said Artworks was difficult to maintain because it is a non-profit gallery. However, he hopes bringing the 12 new artists into The Artist Within will be beneficial.
"We've been here for over five years," he said. "We hope this will bring a new energy for us."
A LOOK AT THINGS TO COME
Art & Soul, which opened last October, is developing new events based on First Thursday.
The gallery began Third Thursdays last month, a poetry and spoken word event. Writers and poets can read their work at these monthly poetry slams, which Wantz said was a "great success" in March.
This month, the gallery will also begin Second Tuesdays, a night dedicated to the performing arts. Wantz said comedians, musicians and other performers can present a free show to an audience. The first Second Tuesday will be on April 13 and will include a performance by musician Michael Martin, owner of Doc's Music Hall.
Wantz said the idea for these new programs is to "embrace all the arts."
With its "artists first" motto, Art and Soul decided to charge a low commission for the featured artists and performers. The gallery takes 20 percent from regular presenters and 10 percent from students, Wantz said.
"I think that's why we've attracted so many artists," she said. "It's given me so much joy."
Art & Soul will introduce its April exhibit tonight, "Spring into Spring," an open exhibit featuring 44 different artists.
SETTING THE SCENE
A little over a decade ago, the arts community in Muncie was almost non-existent, said Genny Gordy, co-owner of Gordy Fine Art and Framing.
She said artists in the city had no place to exhibit their work until Gallery 308 opened downtown 11 years ago. Soon after, she said, there were even more galleries.
"You don't want to be a one gallery town," Gordy said. "We opened the frame shop, and then other galleries started popping up."
As the art gallery scene developed downtown, so did First Thursdays.
Tonight, Gordy's gallery will debut "A Mississinewa Suite: New Paintings by Alan Patrick" for First Thursday.
Patrick, the featured artist, said he has also witnessed the arts community change drastically through the years. Patrick received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Ball State University art program and finished his education in 1966.
Patrick owns a painting studio just north of Muncie. Though he has become a popular fixture in the landscape painting and pottery scene throughout the Midwest, he remains loyal to the city. For years, he owned Bethel Pottery in Muncie and paints for Red-tail Conservancy, a nature preservation group for the city.
"The art scene in Muncie is much more active than it used to be," he said. "It used to be just whatever you could find at Ball State."
Patrick's exhibit at Gordy's gallery will feature 18 pieces including new Indiana landscape paintings and still life oil paintings. Gordy said Patrick is one of the "pillars" of the arts community, and she is happy there is now a place in town for artists like him to display work.
"It's profoundly wonderful for Muncie," Gordy said. "This is the community I've always wanted to live in."
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