Mode Boutique
Thu. July 3, 2008
6-10pm

Friends of Gallery Stroll

There are two really cool blogs that always cover the Gallery Strolls. Our friends Ali at yourheartout.com and April at sweetlifeinthevalley.com
These are great places to check out show info from the Gallery Stroll as well as check out what else is going on around town. Thanks for all your help guys!

July Show openings

July is an odd month in that the first Friday of the month falls on the 4th of July. As such, the openings have been moved around a bit. There are great shows lined up, so definitely come check them out:

Thu., July 3rd, 6-10pm

Sego Art Center- Brandon Boulton, solo exhibit. Sculptural installation.
169 N. Univ. Ave. 801-836-5326

Coal Umbrella- Ike Bushman, solo exhibit, painting.
157 N. Univ. Ave. 801-369-4214

Mode Boutique- Group show, Cassandra and Dan Barney, Zack and Brenda Taylor.
45 N. Univ. Ave. 801-377-1168

Mon., July 7th, 6-9pm

Utah County Art Gallery- Annual Children's Art Show, juried.
151 S. Univ. Ave. 801-754-0125

Photos from Gallery Stroll, June 6, 2008

New Facebook Group

If you're on facebook, come join our new group, "Downtown Provo Gallery Stroll." Upload pictures, see your friends, meet new people, and discuss interesting art.

Gallery Stroll in the Press

Downtown Provo Gallery Stroll continues to promote culture and art

Lindsay Johnson & Greg Wilcox

Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: Life

An event featuring one-of-a-kind art, hip fashion boutiques, fresh music, gourmet food, and ... Provo?

The Downtown Provo Gallery Stroll is no longer the best-kept secret for an enjoyable -- and free -- Friday night. With the recent sprouting of trendy shops and restaurants in the past few years and the continuing revitalization effort in downtown Provo, the stroll is quickly becoming the "it" place to be for students, art connoisseurs, and curious local residents.

The concept of the Downtown Provo Gallery Stroll is genius and is, for the area, experientially unique. On the first Friday of each month, a choice selection of businesses around State Street and University Avenue remain open late from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., while each shop debuts new artwork from local artists.

The public "strolls" from gallery to gallery, mingling with artists, admiring and purchasing their work, picking up cool threads at Coal Umbrella and Mode Boutique, and sampling Italian gelato from Maestro's Gelato Café.

The art remains displayed in the ten businesses involved until the next month when new local artists and their works are showcased. It's a win-win-win situation: Up and coming artists are exposed to the public, local businesses bring potential customers in, and the public is introduced to new art through a fun, interactive experience.

As if that weren't enough, Mode Boutique owners and the Gallery Stroll's coordinators, Ryan and Rebecca Neely, decided to add a twist for the month of April. The theme is art chase. When art strollers visit each exhibit and have a card punched, they will be entered in a drawing for various prizes, including dinners at Guru's and Ottavio's and a night at the Hine's Mansion. Cards are available at all participating venues.

For more information on the Provo Gallery Stroll, including the featured artists for the month of April, visit http://www.DowntownProvo.org or http://www.ModeBoutique.net

Provo Gallery Stroll: Art Chase
Friday, April 4
6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Downtown Provo

http://media.www.uvcollegetimes.com/media/storage/paper982/news/2008/04/07/Life/Downtown.Provo.Gallery.Stroll.Continues.To.Promote.Culture.And.Art-3305204.shtml

Gallery Stroll in the Press

Here is a recent article written about us in the Deseret News:

By Rodger L. Hardy
Deseret Morning News

Published: Thursday, March 6, 2008 12:07 a.m. MST

PROVO — Local artists are now hanging their work alongside store merchandise and on the walls of businesses, providing an artistic atmosphere for restaurants while they sell their wares.

The art is exhibited for a month at a stretch. Merchants take 25 percent of any sales.

The exhibitions are part of the monthly First Friday art gallery stroll sponsored by the Provo Downtown Alliance, said Ryan Neely. He and his wife are event directors.

Inside the Metropolitan Salon, BYU English and art student Ashley Christensen opened her exhibition during the February stroll.

A contemporary artist, she works in pen and ink and watercolor. Her larger piece in the exhibit features a single, unmanned parachute in the sky.

Sky imagery is a common theme for Christensen. She uses images in the sky along with birds and airplanes to depict a connection between heaven and earth.

She describes herself as a community artist with a love for interaction.

The paintings are now on silent auction.

Across University Avenue, another BYU art student, Jason Metcalf, has his mixed-media imagery of home and family on the wall, literally, of Neely's Mode Boutique.

Not only have his paintings graced the wall, he enhanced his exhibition with drawings. Once Metcalf's exhibition ended, Neely repaints and lets the next artist, Ruel Brown, redecorate it.

Metcalf's paintings, too, are sold by silent auction.

A Utah native, Metcalf employs a common Utah image, the beehive, to symbolize home and family. While historically the symbol of industry, Metcalf takes a different tack, using honeycombs symbolically in his work.

Last year in New York's Lincoln Center during the Scope Fair, Metcalf rolled around in a tiny house on wheels producing $2 sculptures for art patrons. Cheap art was the underlying theme of the fair, he said.

Family, the house or home, the beehive and the honeycomb have special meaning for him.

"I see it as Utopia, the perfect society," he said. "It's not so much about industry, but (symbolizing) a perfect society."

People outside of Utah don't really get that, he said.

Maestro's Gelato restaurant on Center Street has a new look with Lisa Marie Crosby's large paintings coloring the walls. Also a BYU art student, her choice of media is oil, while her subject is large abstract landscapes.

Each has to do with a memory of a place or event. She chooses muted colors and particularly likes to use seafoam green. A likely combination is muted gray tones juxtaposed next to earthtones with a bright color, such as pink, to set it off.

"I am interested in a play between structure and chaos, intuition and preparation, landscape and memory, texture and color, drawing and painting, and spontaneity and order. Through painting, I literally explore each of these ideas every day as I enter my studio," she said on her blog, www.lisamariecrosby.blogspot.com, where she also has an exhibit of her work.

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695258362,00.html

Freedom Festival Booth

This fourth of July, come check out the Gallery Stroll booth at the Freedom Festival going on downtown July 3rd, 4th, and 5th. We'll be right next to the climbing wall and will have the spin art machines, should be good fun!

Welcome to the Gallery Stroll Blog!

The first Friday of every month, something incredible happens in downtown Provo, Utah. People come out of their homes, young and old, and take a leisurely stroll through Historic Downtown Provo to enjoy art.
For the past several months, Provo has witnessed a dramatic increase in the level of interest in the arts. Local artists, of all genres and media are working harder than ever to create original shows, supplying the never ending demand Provo has for artistic fulfillment and community involvement. If nothing else, it's a great free date once a month; new art openings means free food, and free food means good times, even if you don't like the art!
Several new venues have gotten involved, and not just traditional art galleries. Retail stores, restaurants, and boutiques have all banded together to create this magical event. The equation is simple. More venues equals more art shows, and more art shows means more local artists have places to display art, giving the artists more reasons to produce great art.
By supporting the creative talent we have in our community, we create a sustainable market which allows them to thrive and flourish, instead of simply moving away and taking their talent with them.