Milledgeville resumes First Friday events

Local shops, community members gather to celebrate art

Milledgeville’s first ever day of First Fridays will be launched Feb. 4 in downtown Milledgeville.

First Fridays are monthly events celebrated all over the nation. On the first Friday of every month, cities across the United States celebrate their community’s arts by having exhibits, entertainment, food and much more.

Macon has been celebrating First Fridays for seven years, leading to a big growth in their downtown liveliness. It has been such a success that Macon has changed the event from the first Friday of every month to every Friday, dubbing it Friday Fest instead of First Fridays.

Businesses in downtown Milledgeville are hoping for the same success.

This isn’t the first time the city has tried to start First Fridays. It took the collaboration of three groups and the kick-start from Milledgeville’s City Manager Barry Jarrett to get the ball rolling.

Jarrett approached Renée Fontenot, vice chair of business development for Milledgeville Mainstreet, asking her to come up with a way for the city to celebrate the opening of the Wayne Street sidewalks. Fontenot spun that into a First Friday event, which will be next month’s theme.

First Fridays are a collaborative effort between Arts in the Ville, a group that is dedicated to coordinate and showcase artists of Milledgeville, Milledgeville Mainstreet Downtown Development Authority, a business advocating the revitalization and economic growth of downtown Milledgeville, and Partners for Progress, a community-wide planning initiative for engaging the necessary leadership to define our city’s needs, which is sponsored by the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce.

First Fridays in Milledgeville will hopefully help businesses prosper, keeping downtown Milledgeville lively.

“This is an opportunity to highlight the businesses downtown and highlight the art we have in Milledgeville,” Fontenot said.

This month’s theme is “HeARTS in the Ville,” and features a Valentine’s Day theme. Mostly every business downtown will be participating in the event. Each business has been paired with one or more artist, who will be showcasing their art in a designated area of the business’ choosing.

Art is a broadly defined word for the First Fridays event. The art being shown will include visual arts, performing arts, culinary arts, story telling, theater, historical art and literary arts.

For this event, this Friday afternoon singers and bands can perform in the street, in a designated area, for tips. All businesses are also being encouraged to stay open until 8 p.m., as most normally close at 5 p.m.

There will be a variety of different arts being showcased on Friday. Jeff Block of justpaperroses.com will be performing origami inside ExtraordiNailry. Charley Riddle of Royal Blood Tattoo will be showing his art in Barberitos. Maria Amado Fontenot will have her manga-inspired art in Kiroshima. In addition, Jeanne Waddel, a story-teller from Washington County, will be performing in Digital Bridges.

There will also be a store-window decorating contest. Merchants will be judged on how creative they get with their “HeARTS in the Ville”­— inspired windows.

Carlee Schulte, interim director of Milledgeville Mainstreet, is looking forward to the event and the growth that it will hopefully bring to downtown.

“We encourage people to visit all of the businesses downtown. It will definitely be a family-friendly atmosphere,” Shulte said. “We want to bring a community atmosphere to the downtown area and bring everyone together with the arts.”

Merchants are also looking forward to the event. Danielle Fields, coordinator of artists through “Arts in the Ville” and owner of Fields Photography and Framing downtown, is thrilled.

“All merchants are very excited to showcase what we have and the talents that Milledgeville has, (which) sometimes get hidden,” Fields said.

Everyone involved asks that the community come out to support the arts and enjoy the family-friendly environment.

The event will be every month, so any artists or businesses interested in participating should contact Milledgeville Mainstreet.

Posted by SabrinaChandler on Feb 3 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.