Downtown Gallery Walk comes to Bloomington

Friday night, before the weather gets too cold to enjoy the outdoors, the streets of Bloomington will come alive with the Downtown Gallery Walk from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Participants will have the opportunity to see some of the best visual arts of 10 participating galleries within walking distance of each other.\nEach gallery will represent its own themes and artists to demonstrate their individuality during this event. The Bellevue Gallery will be presenting "Visual Jam," featuring artwork that expresses many moods of music and movement. At Fountain Square Mall, the By Hand Gallery will be showing off the talents of its four founding members, Suzanne Halvorson, Lee Cohn, Ted Stahley and Rick Holmer.\nThe John Waldron Arts Center Galleries and Gift Shop will display the paintings of Sarah Pearce, which explore the abstract nature of the landscape. Sabine Rodatz's work will also be shown in the exhibit. Her pieces are an example of a Raku firing, a method of firing pottery. \n"I believe that people are looking for a way to get out and to explore the visual arts community," said Miah Michaelson of the John Waldron Arts Center. "This gallery walk is a unified effort among all of the local galleries to celebrate all the things that are involved with the visual arts," \nFossil Rain on N. College Ave. will present local artist Brent A. Sievers', "Industrial Shadows and Cityscapes."\nFormerly known as The Gallery, the Prima Gallery's reopening has been long awaited.. The venue will display works by several local artists under the theme "This Summer's Holiday." \n"I believe that there should be a good turnout, and it will give the people of Bloomington and those coming from outside of Bloomington to really get to know the city of Bloomington as presented through its art," said Brenda Fratianni, who works at the Prima Gallery.\n"Not only will the people of Bloomington benefit from going to this walk, I believe so will many of the artists because it allows their artwork to be exposed to the public."\nThe Wandering Turtle Art Gallery & Gifts will showcase the work of Tom Cat Spray, an underground graffiti artist, in a celebration of the 20th anniversary of when he first stenciled in Bloomington. Spray's elaborately detailed paintings spawned copycats and stirred controversy when they first appeared in Bloomington alleys in 1984. Some say his work started the debate over whether graffiti was vandalism or art.\n"The whole idea of the gallery walk is to promote local artists and have them be exposed," said Jaime Sweany, founder of the Wandering Turtle Art Gallery & Gifts. \nMany of the galleries will also offer live music and refreshments. Many of the artists exhibited will be present as part of this celebration of the arts.\n-- Contact staff writer Rose Mary Forte at rforte@indiana.edu.