Art to Warm the Soul at the February First Friday

For More Information: Kristen Wicker 937-224-1518, ext. 228 (office) 937-238-4121 (cell)

Art to Warm the Soul at the February First Friday New downtown gallery to celebrate grand opening during free event highlighting the city’s artistic, culinary and entertainment offerings.

Dayton, Jan. 22, 2009 – The next First Friday downtown art hop will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. Feb. 6 at the following locations:

• throughout the Oregon Arts District on E. Fifth Street; • Cannery Art and Design Center, 434 E. Third St.; • Dayton Visual Arts Center, 118 N. Jefferson St.; • Dayton Convention Center Mezzanine Gallery, 22 E. Fifth St.; • H. David Clay Studio, 33 S. St. Clair St.; and • Sandra’s Art Emporium, 27 S. St. Clair St.

In the Oregon Arts District, visitors may park in a newly renovated, well-lit parking lot on the west end of the Oregon Arts District. The lot, accessible near Gem City Records on East Fifth Street and by Womanline from E. Sixth St., provides 185 free parking spaces. Just down the street from this lot, on the corner of Brown and Fifth streets, visitors can catch a free ride to all First Friday locations on Greater Dayton RTA’s Wright Flyer trolley. First Friday RTA stops will be marked with special signs, and the trolley will stop approximately every 20 to 25 minutes along the route.

Sandra’s Art Emporium, a new addition to downtown Dayton, features jewelry made by owner Sandra Salyer- Miller and other local artists, along with sculpture and paintings. Salyer-Miller will celebrate her store’s grand opening during First Friday with appetizers and wine, as well as a raffle for a piece of her handmade jewelry.

The following exhibits will be on display in the Oregon Arts District:

• Gallery 510 Fine Art, 510 E. Fifth St., will host an opening reception for “Photographic Paintings,” the latest body of work by Treeann Raines Smith, who will travel from her home in Los Angeles to attend the opening. Also on display will be aviation photography by Tom White, who also will hold an artist’s talk at the gallery at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, to discuss his work and experiences as an interpretive park ranger with the National Park Service at Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., and Dayton Aviation Heritage National Park in Dayton, Ohio. Both artists’ work will be on display through Feb 28.

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• Color of Energy, 16 Brown St., will host an exhibition previewing work gallery owner Mike Elsass has created for an upcoming show in Tucson, Ariz.

• Link Gallery, 519 E. Fifth St., will present an exhibit of works by its nearly two dozen contributing artists.

The Dayton Visual Arts Center will host “In the Garden: Photographic Images by Ohio Artists,” a traveling exhibit organized and curated by Christine Shearer Fowler of the Massillon Museum of Art and co-curated by Jim Bowling and DVAC Executive Director Jane A. Black. For more on DVAC, visit www.daytonvisualarts.org.

The Cannery Art and Design Center will feature individual and collaborative work by metal and jewelry artists David Brand and Sandra Picciano-Brand. At 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., they’ll present a demo on hydraulic press-forming techniques for metal and Kum Boo, an ancient method of fusing 24-karat gold to silver. The Brands exhibit their jewelry and metal sculpture in national-level juried art shows, and have won numerous awards. For more on the Brands’ work, visit www.mythicsilver.com.

The Cannery also will kick off a celebration of its third anniversary. The celebration will culminate during a Cannery Block Party from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13. Artists and patrons are invited to bring a dish to share, and the Dayton Improvisers Orchestra will make its debut performance with a show titled “Honoring the Ancestors, Rediscovering the Future, and Playing the Music of Tomorrow.” For more on the CADC, visit www.canneryarts.com.

At the Dayton Convention Center Mezzanine Gallery, the Dayton Visual Arts Center and the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors will host “The Cline Show,” which features work from students who are in their last two years of post-secondary education. This exhibition is dedicated to longtime Dayton Visual Arts Center employee Barb Cline and is funded through The Barbara C. Cline Memorial Fund. A reception for the artists will be held during First Friday, and the exhibit runs through March 26.

H. David Clay Studio features functional and decorative stoneware pottery, as well as raku, by proprietor H. David Kirchner, who makes all the work on the premises.

In addition, a variety of entertainment options are available during First Fridays. All the restaurants, retail shops, bars and clubs, Neon Movies, Wiley’s Comedy Club, and other establishments in the Oregon Arts District and Cannery will be open. Pacchia, 410 E. Fifth St., will offer a 15 percent discount on appetizers to First Friday attendees. Therapy Café, 452 E. Third St., will present Eighties Night, a new monthly event featuring well-known local turntablist DJ Jay spinning ‘80s new wave and some ‘70s disco starting at 9 p.m.

The Downtown Dayton Partnership’s Web site, www.downtowndayton.org, has a complete list of downtown’s arts and cultural amenities, as well as a dining guide, parking map and much more.