2011.04.11
Sunday’s column: Downtown gallery tour moves to Fridays
Roanoke’s Art by Night held its 2011 grand opening April 1, but the event’s move from Thursday, when it has traditionally been held, to Friday evening wasn’t an April Fool’s joke. The downtown open gallery tour will take place the first Friday of every month from now on.
The reasons are simple. More people are out on the town on a Friday, without necessarily needing to worry about getting to work the next morning or sending the kids to school.
“There’s been an ongoing push” among the galleries that are part of Art by Night to move the event to Friday, said Suzun Hughes, co-owner of the Wilson Hughes Gallery at 117 Campbell Ave. “Everyone did have a very good turnout this April 1.”
If you were downtown that night and noticed horse-drawn carriages in Roanoke’s streets, those were also part of Art by Night.
The carriages, operated by Lexington Carriage Co., were sponsored by Downtown Roanoke Inc. and will return for the May 6 tour. They’ll run from 5 to 9 p.m. on a figure-eight course through downtown at 15-minute intervals, making five stops. And they’re free.
Hughes said the organization is hunting for ways to continue funding the carriage rides past May.
The Taubman Museum of Art has moved its free evening hours to Fridays from 5 to 8 p.m. so they’ll coincide with Art by Night. The Taubman’s program, now called “Taubman After Dark,” includes free admission to the second-floor galleries, said spokesman Jeff Miller.
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