MIDLAND Local artists will once again have their works on display next week as another edition of the Midland Art Crawl returns.
The event, which is put on by Midland AF, will feature different art works from various artists in the area at different locations around the Tall City.
The inaugural event took place last year and has since taken place quarterly.
Next week’s event will take place from 6-9 p.m. March 3.
“We’re excited,” Founder of Midland Art Crawl Stacy Livingston said. “We seem to be growing with artists and with foot traffic as well at every single art crawl. This will be our fourth art crawl, I believe. We’re continuing on with doing a quarterly crawl for the time being and we’re hopeful about growing the event in the future.”
Seven venues featuring over 30 artists will join together for the evening, celebrating the local art community and local businesses in Midland.
When the first Midland Art Crawl was held last summer, the event only had 12 artists participating.
Now, there are well over 30 as the number of members for Midland Art Crawl has increased.
“They’re able to sign up and participate in the events,” Livingston said. “The foot traffic, we’re having over a hundred-plus people come through each of the venues in the three hour that the art crawl is available.”
Next week’s event will take place at The Blue Door, The FaFa Gallery, Eccentric Brewing Co., Hand Café, Velvet Mesquite, The Texas Sun Winery and Rusty Taco.
The artists who will have their works on display include Amanda Scruggs, Jennifer O’Reilly, Loren Estes, Tydale McAlister, Connie Lee, Bartlett Culp, Sherry Thomas, Lesley Klay, Jackeline Savino, Brandon Norman, Ellen Choate, Agapita Garcia, Madison Clements, Carson Nevill, Sharon Navage, Mary Lambeth, Kardian Williams, Rebekah Conder, Jenny Sue Molenko, Elizabeth Schwope and Adria Aguilar.
Livingston talked about the many different diverse art works that will be on display.
“We have one artist where she focuses on bugs,” Livingston said. “For some reason, that is the thing that moves her and she makes beautiful pieces. We have some pieces from an artist who does historical figures. He’s amazing. We have people that are hand making jewelry and lots of different ceramic artists. We have Leslie Klay who does a lot of ceramic classes all over town. She’s partnered with the blue door for some of those. She’ll be participating in this. We have a great spectrum of artists that are seasoned, full-time artists and we have other artists and those that do it for fun. That was our objective. It was to bring people together and empower them to make and show their art.”
The Midland Art Crawl began as a way to bring the art community of Midland together while introducing Midlanders and locals to the diverse art in the city.
Livingston is excited about the way the event has grown and how people have responded.
“We’re excited and I think the outreach we get from people that have participated and seeing what diversity in the people attending and the other venues wanting to participating has been great,” Livingston said. “We’re trying not to grow too fast. We want to sustain and make sure there are enough artists at each location. We’re hoping in the future that it will be a city-wide event, involving the different art associations and getting children involved and make it a real community thing that everyone looks forward to each quarter.”
Livingston also commented on what the growth of the Art Crawl says about the arts scene in Midland.
“I think it says that there are people are looking for an opportunity to come together on a regular basis and gain more visibility,” Livingston said. “One of the most important things is that even if you can’t make it to the art crawl, you can still make it to our website and see the artists’ works. It helps bring more visibility to everyone involved.”
For more information on the Midland Art Crawl, go to tinyurl.com/59ppjuje.
