With the success of the previous Downtown Art Tour, Downtown Odessa and the Odessa Arts will be partnering up once again for a second tour this week.
The second edition of the Downtown Art Tour will begin at 6 p.m. Oct. 28 at the Ector Theatre.
This week’s Downtown Art Tour will celebrate the history and culture of Dia de los Muertos on a guided walking tour, which will stop at five local businesses downtown.
“The first one was a huge success so we decided to offer this one,” Downtown Odessa’s Events and Marketing Coordinator Savannah Woodward said. “This one will be coming on the heels of Dia de los Muertos theme and we’re looking forward to kicking that off before the weekend where we have a lot of events Saturday and Sunday that other organizations are putting on.”
The first Downtown Art Tour took place back in April and was a success. It wasn’t long before Odessa Arts and Downtown Odessa were partnering up to plan for the next one.
“We were already planning this art tour within a couple of days of the last art tour ending,” Odessa Arts Executive Director Randy Ham said.
In keeping up with the Dia de los Muertos theme, this week’s art tour will include decorating sugar skulls, sampling salsa recipes, watching a Mariachi perform and other activities.
“It’s not just a way to learn of these traditions but illustrate the walkability of downtown Odessa,” Ham said. “Odessa is not known as a walk-able city but downtown Odessa is very walk-able and to be able to go from the Ector theatre to the copper key realty to the sidebar, you can experience all this on your own two feet. I think that’s really cool.”
For those who might not be aware or weren’t at the last art tour, the event is a guided walking tour of downtown Odessa with five different stops, each featuring a unique artistic activity or demonstration.
All attendees will receive two free drinks and snacks along the way and souvenirs form activities.
Attendees must be 21 or older with valid ID to attend. Non-alcoholic options will be available at all beverage stops.
The five stops include Ector Theatre, Copper Key Gift and Realty, Side Bar and Grill, Torchy’s Tacos and the Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.
Woodward said they paid attention to the feedback from the last Downtown Art Tour and one of the changes they’ll make is having longer stop times.
“We did get a lot of feedback from people saying that they would like a longer time at each stop to immerse more in it and they wanted a little bit more education aspect of each entertainment piece at each stop,” Woodward said. “We have expanded the stop times from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. There will be four stops.”
Ham said it was fun planning this week’s edition of the art tour.
“We love the fact that it is a Dia de los Muertos themed because it’s not just about going out and having fun. The participants are going to learn so much more about the traditions of Dia de los Muertos and I think that’s really cool to be able to present that to the community of art.”
For more information on this week’s Downtown Art Tour, go to tinyurl.com/2s49hm4n.
“I just want to say how exciting it is to once again work with Downtown Odessa,” Ham said. “It seems like every time we do something collaborative together, success is guaranteed.”
If you go
>> What: Downtown Art Tour
>> When: Tours will start at 6 p.m. Oct. 28
>> Where: Begins at Ector Theatre
>> Where to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/2s49hm4n
