On the first Friday of every month, the plastic flutes fill with free champagne and the streets fill with people hungry for crackers and cheese cubes… and art. Lots of art. Modern-day Medicis peruse the pictures and sculptures on display at locations around town, clustered mostly in the downtown area but extending to Harvey West, the Westside of Santa Cruz and lately the Eastside as well. Mainstays like the Museum of Art and History and Felix Kulpa Gallery can always be counted on to stage stimulating shows, but half the fun is discovering the gems assembled by the amateur curators whose galleries are nightclubs, sex shops and hair salons by day. Don’t let the linear connotation of the term “art walk” mislead you—this is an unstructured, all-inclusive artsy free-for-all. Pick up a map or download the app (both produced by the organizer, Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Arts) and choose your own adventure.
FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK takes place on the first Friday of every month at locations around Santa Cruz. Free. FirstFridaySantaCruz.com.
