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Photo Gallery

Final Fridays Year One Gallery

Selected photos from the past year of Final Friday art walks.

Last year about this time, event planners were touting the idea of an art walk in downtown Lawrence that would bring the appreciation of local artists to a higher level and more business to downtown storefronts. With at least 30 galleries, shops and restaurants participating, The Lawrence Arts Center and Downtown Lawrence Inc. hoped to start something they could build on.

Now, as the one year anniversary of Final Fridays approaches, the art walk already feels like a Lawrence tradition.

Tomorrow promises to be the biggest Final Fridays celebration yet as the multi-disciplined cooperative effort joins forces with the University of Kansas Libraries’ very first Campus Art Walk. The result is an add-on to the normal Final Fridays madness — something known as The Mobile Gallery Project.

Starting at the Spencer Art Museum sometime around 5:30 p.m., several mobile art galleries will parade around campus during the Campus Art Walk, eventually making their way down Ninth Street sidewalks and alleyways downtown to Final Fridays around 6 p.m. Remember, this is art, so one shouldn’t take the term “gallery” for granted.

“To give you an idea of the variety of responses to the idea of a mobile gallery,” says Molly Murphy, Final Fridays Coordinator, “One of the galleries is a procession of people, one is a truck gallery and one is a backgammon case gallery.”

It’s a big step forward for Final Fridays, which has grown to include partners such as the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission and now KU Libraries — not to mention all of the artists, venues, and organizers who work together to make it happen.

“There have been gallery walks in the past in Lawrence, but I don't think to the extent that Final Fridays has reached,” says Ben Ahlvers, Exhibit Director at the Lawrence Arts Center. He also praises the consistent turnout each month in both audiences and artists: “The quality and variety of artists participating is a testament to what a creative-rich town we live in.”

Each month, the list of local businesses that want to participate in Final Fridays grows. Murphy fields phone calls and emails from both newly interested parties and venues that have actually started converting part of the retail space in their shop specifically for the event, while other businesses are staying open later on Final Fridays to accommodate the extra traffic.

Although the idea for the Campus Art Walk grew out of a desire to expand KU Libraries’ in-house LibArt exhibition, its organizers were also inspired by the success of Final Fridays. “The Final Fridays art walk came to mind as a great example of success at the community level,” says Courtney Foat, Communications Specialist at KU Libraries, “and we purposely set the date of Friday August 26, hoping that we could join forces with the downtown art walk coordinators to build added interest and momentum for both events.”

The Campus Art Walk, which starts at 4 p.m. and ends at 6 p.m. just as Final Fridays is beginning, is also strategically timed during Hawk Week and the first week of classes. If it is successful, KU Libraries is hoping to make it an annual event, and this year a wide variety of 2D and 3D art, digital art, dance and musical performances are lined up.

In addition to hosting events at Watson and Anschutz Libraries, the Campus Art Walk will include exhibits in the Art and Design building, the Kansas Union, Spencer Museum of Art, Stauffer-Flint Hall and the KUJH-TV studio in the Dole Center.

Foat says that aside from being a way for students to engage with art on a local and international level, the Campus Art Walk also provides new students with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the layout of campus — the buildings, resources, and services that are available to them.

For Murphy, the feeling of a united arts community is the biggest reward. “I think everyone involved was confident that Final Fridays would grow and gain in popularity, but the outpouring of support and excitement for FF has been humbling,” she says. “For me personally, the opportunity to connect to other artists and arts supporters has been exciting. Lawrence has always had a large population of artists, and I get to see more and more of them coming together each month.”

Both organizers agree that Lawrence has something special to offer, despite what the governor’s recent de-funding of the Kansas Arts Commission might suggest.

“At a time when funding and resources for the arts seem to be in short supply,” says Foat, “it's important for the arts communities on campus and across Lawrence to pool our creative efforts and maximize awareness and appreciation of the enriching value we bring to Lawrence.”