40 West Arts District celebrated its first ever virtual First Friday on April 3rd. The event, designed to support our local artists, creatives, galleries and community kicked off at 6pm with an hour-long Watch Party hosted on Facebook.

This fun tool allowed users to pop in to chat and watch videos submitted by our artists and galleries showcasing their work. These included gallery walk-throughs, story sharing, and deep dives into individual pieces and processes from current gallery shows. The rest of the evening was held across the 40 West Arts Instagram and Twitter platforms sharing #Art6ftApart from home.

To everyone who stopped into watch, supported our local creatives and shared creativity happening in their homes — thank you! We reached over 2,000 people during this online streaming and publishing event and were simply blown away by the support. Every like, comment, retweet, .gif drop and share proves the power and importance of art in creating positivity and joy in our new social internet space.

If you were unable to join us during First Friday, you’re in luck! You can find a full archive of the shared videos on the 40 West Arts website right here or by subscribing to us on YouTube right here. We’ll keep this archive up and available to you the entire month.

COVID-19 recommendations are changing rapidly. While 40 West Arts hopes to host an in-person event as soon as is safely possible, we are also preparing for virtual contingencies. Our May Virtual First Friday will happen regardless of our ability to host an in-person event, and concurrently we look forward to the time when we can safely and securely open our district to the public again.

Are you looking to get involved in May? We’re listening and learning to expand this process every day! If you’re an artist or creative person in 40 West Arts you can submit a video to be a part of next month’s virtual First Friday experience, click here to see our call for submissions (open to everyone!).

If you’re a fan of the arts looking for fun and creative ideas on how to create while staying safe following social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home order, click here to learn more about the 40 West ArtLine initiative for the #40WestArtsPositivityCampaign.

We’d like to thank every single person once again who came together with us to celebrate an evening of art online. For now, we’ll leave you with this thought and see you on the social internet!

“Art is too important not to share.”
- Romero Britto, Brazilian artist, painter, serigrapher and sculptor -

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