Once a month, the Bloomington community can visit 14 galleries within walking distance at no cost.
Gallery Walk Bloomington, held on the first Friday of each month, highlights Bloomington’s local art scene by unveiling new exhibitions, extending gallery hours and serving refreshments.
The I Fell Gallery + Studios is one of the participating galleries. The studio hosted an opening reception for “Plastic Flowers, $4.99” by Alison Cofrancesco and “Between Feedings” by Andreea Alunei.
Describing itself as “a community of artists in downtown Bloomington,” the I Fell Gallery has consistently showcased work by Bloomington artists and also houses artist studios.
Cofrancesco presented still-life paintings with self-referential female figures and commodified objects that reflected personal adventure.
“As visual artists, we work a lot in solitude, which can be wonderful, but it's nice to celebrate and be with your community,” Cofranceso said. “Also, we work in these tiny little studios. It's great to see all the work out and see how it really looks with a little space and distance.”
Alunei’s exhibit featured various bodies of work made during pregnancy and the first months of early motherhood.
“I introduced different styles and themes of works I introduced last time at the Waldron Cetner,” Alunei said. “Gallery Walk is wonderful. You get to meet people that you wouldn't otherwise.”
Less than a block away, the Pictura Gallery at The FAR Center for Contemporary Arts hosted the opening night of “Ukraine’s Place of Power (2019-2021)” by Viktoria Sorochinski.
People were taking a closer look of the photos displayed, and the opening reception was happening in the galleries all gathered up.
Sorochinski, a photographer with Ukrainian roots, introduced portraits of individual living in Poltava, Ukraine.
"The wonderful thing about Gallery Walk is that it’s one of those organizations where, together, we’re stronger, and we can do things better,” Martha Moore, co-owner of The FAR Center, said. “Sometimes we have a theme. One year, we did Day of the Dead as part of our October programming.”
Moore served as chair of the Gallery Walk Bloomington's committee from 2010 to 2024.
“It's an organization that's designed to help galleries get started, to help them stay open, and to help, you know, to all of us to work together,” Moore said.
Juniper Art Gallery featured the opening of “She Saw–He Saw: Recent Paintings by MarySue VeerKamp-Schwab & Bill Schwab” during the walk.
Artist’s works for this exhibition, framed and displayed alongside a podium, were exhibited in harmony with the artist’s existing pieces.
The gallery exhibits work by award-winning Midwestern regional artists, with an emphasis on contemporary painting.
Scott Shields, a self-named ‘Bloomerang,’ a Bloomington native who left the area but has since returned, attended the gallery walk and said the Juniper Art Gallery in particular spoke to him when he came back to the town, conveying Bloomington's spirit.
“And it was just something about the people here, and all the learnings that I had through life, and about how people express themselves, and it's just a beautiful place,” Shields said. “It made me feel like home again.”
A full list of events is updated monthly on Gallery Walk Bloomington’s Instagram account and its website. The next walk will occur March 6 from 5-8 p.m.
