There were also be numerous exhibit openings, street cycling and break dance competitions.
The next First Friday will be held at the following locations:
• Armory Building, 201 E. Sixth St.; • Cachet G, 133 E. Third St.; • Cannery Art and Design Center, 434 E. Third St.; • Color of Energy Gallery, 16 Brown St.; • c{space, 20 N. Jefferson St.; • Dayton Visual Arts Center, 118 N. Jefferson St.; • Gallery 510 Fine Art, 510 E. Fifth St.; • Garden Station, corner of Fourth and Wayne Ave.; • Goloka Gallery, 523 E. Fifth St; • H. David Clay Studio, 33 S. St. Clair St.; • K12 Gallery for Young People, 510 E. Third St.; • Link Gallery, 519 E. Fifth St.; • Sandra’s Art Emporium, 27 S. St. Clair St.; • Space 11, 207 E. Sixth St.; and • Summer Space, 207 E. Sixth St.
In addition, Urban Excursion ¯ part scavenger hunt, part The Amazing Race ¯ will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m., with participants visiting a variety of locations throughout downtown. Teams of four will be given a playbook at the start of the race that contains clues ranging in difficulty and including physical challenges, brain teasers and scavenger hunt items. Each clue has a point value, and teams will have 90 minutes to complete as many clues for the highest point total possible. No knowledge of any hunt location is required ¯ just a sharp mind and a sense of adventure.
Registration is $20 per team until Monday, Sept. 28, and $30 afterward. Teams are encouraged to wear coordinating outfits and will need a digital camera to complete some of the clues. Prizes will be awarded for first, second and third place teams. Click here for more information and to register.
Also joining the October First Friday is Creative Soul of Dayton, a new community visual arts exhibition celebrating the Dayton area’s creative, innovative legacy and the diversity of its artists. It will be on display on the third floor of the Armory Building, on the corner of Sixth Street and Patterson Boulevard in the Oregon Arts District. Visitors to the exhibit should enter through the building’s rear entrance, accessible from a parking lot off Patterson Boulevard.
During First Friday, an opening reception will be held for the exhibit, which features the work of 130 artists, with more than 230 pieces in all media, including drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, video and site-specific installations. Creative Soul of Dayton will run through Friday, Nov. 6.
Next door, Space 11 will host the opening reception for “Alinement,” featuring site-specific works by Stefan Chinov and Thomas Macaulay created in response to the raw space on the third floor of the Excelsior building, where Space 11 opened in September. The artists’ installations attempt to engage the viewer in a direct sensual experience in which 3-D forms and drawings merge in a perceptual unity. Space 11 is an alternative exhibition space focused on experimentation for emerging and professional artists who work in installation, new and developing media, and performance.
Also located in the Excelsior building, Summer Space will host “Painting in the Pit,” a project in which artist Mike Elsass has been painting 50 paintings in 50 days to create his newest body of work.
The following exhibits will be on display elsewhere in the Oregon Arts District:
• Gallery 510 Fine Art will feature paintings by Phyllis Niemeyer and ceramics by Lauren Gruber. Niemeyer’s highly colored and patterned oil paintings are based on the fluidity of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements, and her portraits are filled with symbolic meaning from which she hopes to visually and intellectually stimulate the viewer. Gruber’s ceramic work combines wheel-thrown forms with altered, hand-built construction. Inspired by the rhythms found in multiples, her work invites organization and reorganization of the nested vessels. She takes care to preserve throwing marks, allowing the viewer to deconstruct the processes used to complete each piece.
• Color of Energy Gallery will feature the work of gallery owner Mike Elsass, the woodcut paintings of Bob Rhoads and a new coffee table arts book by photographer Amanda Baker.
• Goloka Gallery will feature the pottery and paintings of Jason Dryden and Tiffany Clark.
• Link Gallery will host a group show featuring works in a variety of mediums by more than 30 artists.
In addition, artist Lily Whitehead will be creating henna body art in the Oregon Arts District at Derailed: A Hair Salon, 506 ½ E. Fifth St. For more on the Oregon Arts District, visit www.oregonartsdistrict.com. The nearby Garden Station, an urban community garden and art park, will host bonfires, live music and garden tours and show a movie at dusk.
Also nearby, the Cannery Art and Design Center (CADC) will feature the opening reception for “Tea, Anyone?,” featuring ceramic teapots and servings sets by Nancy Snyder and Paula Vasquez, who will be serving tea from Basically British. The artists’ teapot sets include mugs, cups, cream and sugar containers, honey jars, and serving plates. Their pottery has both British and Asian influences with contemporary undertones and is handbuilt and wheel-thrown. For more on the CADC, visit .
Also in the Cannery area, K12 Gallery for Young People will feature the artwork of Tiffany Clark, K12 artist-in-training students and a sneak peek of its latest large-scale mosaic mural for Fifth Street. For more, visit www.k12gallery.org.
From 5 to 8 p.m., the Dayton Visual Arts Center (DVAC) will host “Finding Middle Ground,” a group show featuring photographs by William Harper of Chicago, drawings and composite prints by Jaime Kennedy and Kelly Urquhart of Kent, and ceramic sculptures by Beth Kamhi of Chicago. The exhibition, on view through Oct. 15, explores human interaction with the natural world from a variety of perspectives.
Also during First Friday, Sandra’s Art Emporium will feature a new fall items, new earring design by artist and owner Sandra Salyer-Miller, who will hold a raffle for a pair of earrings and offer a 10 percent discount on all items during First Friday. H. David Clay Studio will feature functional and decorative stoneware pottery, as well as raku, made by proprietor H. David Kirchner on the premises. Cachet G will present a new exhibit of work by artists of the Ellison Senior Center. And the community arts hub c{space will host “Raise the Rent,” a party and graffiti art show featuring a break dancing competition and music by DJ crew Skratchmatik.
The urban street cycling event Courteous Mass will gather at Don Crawford Plaza in front of Fifth Third Field. The ride, which is free and open to the public, will start at 5:30 p.m. Riders will cruise a 3.2-mile route along the Mad River Trail from downtown to Eastwood Metropark.
A number of area restaurants and taverns will host special events during First Friday. For example, Renaissance Salon and Spa, 400 E. Fifth St., will host an open house w/ refreshments, color and skin care consultations, and tours of its newly opened space. In addition, all the restaurants, retail shops, bars and clubs, Neon Movies, Wiley’s Comedy Club, Urban Krag Climbing Center and other establishments throughout downtown will be open.
Another new addition to Dayton’s arts scene located near these First Friday activities, Missing Peace Art Space, 234 S. Dutoit St., is hosting the exhibit “Know Justice, Know Peace,” featuring the work of Max Ginsburg of New York City. Ginsburg’s paintings explore the realities, ironies, social injustices and joys of the human experience.
First Friday patrons can download a discount coupon that makes it even less expensive to enjoy many of downtown’s restaurants and taverns. First Friday is sponsored by CODE Credit Union and WHIO TV Channel 7, with support from Greater Dayton RTA and the Downtown Dayton Partnership.
First Friday attendees can get around for free on Greater Dayton RTA’s Wright Flyer. First Friday RTA stops are located throughout downtown and will be marked with special signs. The Downtown Dayton Partnership’s Web site, www.downtowndayton.org, has a complete list of downtown’s arts and cultural amenities, as well as a dining guide, parking map and much more.