There’s a first time for everything and, since Friday is the first Friday in April, the Imagine Foundation is having its first First Friday event on the downtown Jacksonville square.
“Essentially, it’s continuing the tradition of the Gallery Hop,” said Andy Mitchell, owner of Our Town Books and co-organizer of the First Friday event with The Soap Co. Coffee House owner Nicole Riley. “After (longtime Imagine leader Clare Lynd-Porter) moved, we … wanted to rethink it and sort of rejuvenate it and give it a new name and start fresh in the spring.”
Well, spring has sprung.
“That’s what we’re doing and we’re pretty happy about it,” Mitchell said.
Friday’s event includes 11 participants — some of them frequent Gallery Hop participants, some of them not.
“Before it was more the idea that people felt they had to actually have art, that it was specifically that,” Mitchell said. “Art is great and I love art. But we didn’t want people to think you had to have an art exhibit to participate. You could think outside the box and do other things.
“We were happy that a lot of people did want to participate.”
Those who enjoyed the arts aspect of the Gallery Hop have nothing to fear. First Friday still features a range of arts-related activities, including art exhibits and concerts at the various venues. But it’s not limited to that, Mitchell said.
“We encourage them to do what they want to do to be involved,” he said. “At the book store, we’d usually have a signing (during the Gallery Hop). This time, we’re having music. Each place is free to do its own kind of thing.”
There is a bit of a trade-off for the participants, one that should benefit the event’s patrons, Mitchell said.
Participants were asked to remain open for the entire length of the event, from 5 to 8 p.m., instead of closing early.
Organizers were happy to give participants freedom to choose their activity, but “We encouraged that time frame,” Mitchell said.
