First Fridays at the Penticton Art Gallery
This event is our Open Mic and Art sharing night, happening on the first Friday of every month. Bring instruments, paints, poetry, your voice, an open mind etc.
First Fridays is completely FREE.
Doors open at 7:30. All creativity welcome!
We have a large tv if you would like to screen something.
Friday, September 3rd, October 1st
& November 5th
Just the same way cells make up the living organism of your body, a community is made up of people, and these people make up the living organism of the community. The way communities used to express themselves was through song, dance, drama, primal language — not to tell her story or his story, but our story. We [now] live in a very commodified world, and so we buy music, we buy dance, we buy paintings, we buy drama. We pay strangers to tell us stories about strangers, yet when do we get together as living communities to use this primal language to tell our stories?”
~ David Diamond, speaking at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
First Fridays is a forum for Penticton to get together as a “living community”. Our goals with First Fridays are twofold — first, we hope to create a public forum for artists, musicians, and performers and second, we strive to be a place where the arts are celebrated and shared outside of the realm of commercialism. First Fridays acts as a community living room – a place for new artists in the community to meet like-minded people in a supportive environment. There is no admission charge so it accessible to everyone, regardless of their financial situation. The program is open to all ages, and encourages the sharing of any art, music or type of performance thereby creating an atmosphere where younger artists can interact and learn from older, more established artists and vice versa.
If you have never been to First Fridays, you can expect a spontaneous lineup of artists and musical acts. Most people who attend are there to play music, read poetry, tell a story, or share some visual art. We have had people screen new media pieces they have made. Often people set up their paints or drawing materials on one of the tables provided.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, we would love to hear from you so please email us at agso_reception@shawbiz.ca.