Like many communities throughout Seattle, Fremont has its night dedicated to art when a dozen businesses invite art lovers - or the simply curious - to stroll among our galleries, restaurants and gift shops. While we didn't invent the concept of the First Friday Art Walk, held from 6 - 9 p.m., this also isn't our first attempt to connect art lovers to art and, hopefully, to the artists of Fremont.

The image of Fremont as a haven for artists dates back to the late 1960s. Cheap rents supposedly drew them here although such bargains only applied to our nearly catatonic business district and sometimes underutilized industrial buildings where an indiscriminate renter overlooked a lack of amenities in favor of large empty space in which to create.

Some say the artists left Fremont in the 1980's when the business area, thanks in part to the creation of the Chamber of Commerce, experienced a remarkable revitalization. However, through revitalization came shops and galleries that displayed and sold the work of many artists, sometimes those that owned the businesses.

Slow Start, Strong Progress

The Edge of Glass Gallery showed the works of John Walsh under the management of Terry Walsh. In 1995, the couple held their Fremont First Sunday Art and Music Series. These events combined a performance by a musician and a demonstration by an artisan and/or artist. From wood carving to furniture making to, of course, glass blowing by John, visitors learned several creative disciplines.

At that time a dozen galleries occupied a variety of spaces throughout our slowly expanding downtown district. We had the more formal Marvin Oliver Gallery to the hidden Back Alley Gallery. Some did double duty like Take 2 which also served as a consignment clothing story, the legendary Still Life in Fremont Coffeehouse served primarily as a gathering space while Dance Fremont!, once located beneath the Aurora Bridge, hung works on the walls of their dance studio.

Following Terry's lead, gallery owners organized the Fremont First Saturday Art About which soon included 36 businesses in Fremont proper, and another 8 that lay outside the formal boundaries, such as they are. The event took place from 4 - 7 p.m. and included tours, often held in Mike Hale's (Hale's Ale Brewery) vintage ambulance or his popular double-decker bus. Artists opened their studios for demonstrations and sales.

The October 1997 issue of the Chamber newsletter, The Bridge, ran the announcement, "The Art About presents the Rocket Lighting Ceremony December 6th at 5 p.m. A Baza-Art (an art bazaar) and guided Art About tours leaving from Marvin Oliver Gallery are also being planned." However, the inevitable winds of change had stirred up the membership of the Art About. By the time December arrived, the event had moved to the 13th and the times changed to 1- 5 p.m.

By 1998, several of the original promoters of the event - like Take 2 and Edge of Glass - sold their businesses and others lost enthusiasm or energy for what had become an intensive and exhausting enterprise. The newsletter, About Art About, put together by the relative newcomers at Art F/X, listed many ways for interested business owners to get involved including mini-tours held after monthly meetings, voting on the design of the pennants hung in front of participating businesses and inserts into the maps distributed to Art About strollers. The Chamber newsletter continued to list the Art About throughout 1998, but it slipped off the calendar after February of 1999.

New Eyes, New Energy

Ragan Peck spoke to the FROG (Fremont Retail Organizational Group) in September of 2003 to propose the Fremont First Friday Art Walk. She spoke enthusiastically but it sounded like the same old thing with a new, but more alliterative name.

Ragan created an Art Walk much more low-key, and much more low maintenance. By 2005 it involves a dozen spaces listed on posters and hand-outs. These galleries and shops take responsibility for their own promotion and involvement. Ragan charges them a slight fee for inclusion on the posters, but otherwise leaves it up to them to participate. Walkers find the galleries who often hold parties and use the evening as the opening night monthly shows.

Success often relies on the fickle finger of fate and it remains to be seen if the Art Walk will prosper longer than the Art About. Regardless, for Fremont both succeeded from the start. The events, thanks to the ambition and enthusiasm of local small business owners, brought people together to form, support and open our community to everyone. For that, to all, we owe our gratitude.

July 2005