Art Crawling

Since arriving in Hamilton a few weeks ago, multiple people have taken the opportunity to tell us about the James Street North Art Crawl, and how great an event it is.

Silly me, I thought this Art Crawl was a summer event - you know, people strolling down the street, looking at art on a sunny summer's evening. Wrong. Much to our delight, its held on the second Friday of EVERY month!

Anyway, one Friday night earlier this month (the second Friday, obviously), we were sitting around, weighing our options for fun Hamilton things to do. Lo and behold, someone on Twitter reminded us about the art crawl. Perfect opportunity to check it out!

So, we headed down to James St. N. It was a chilly sort of evening, and there weren't too many people out and about....we initially wondered where the art crawl was...I thought it would be one of those Toronto-style events where they close off part of the street and throngs of people are wandering around (silly me, again! I don't think I've seen a throng of people since we've been here).

Anyway, after parking the car, we started to wander up James St. N, and went into the first art gallery we saw. It was full of people, talking, looking at art (obviously!) drinking wine and snacking. Wonderful! After soaking up the atmosphere there, we continued on our way, meandering through boutiques, musicians playing and even an art installation in what we assumed is usually an empty building. (Also fascinating to get a look inside these places from an urban design perspective, says my hubby).

Now, I'm not going to pretend to critique art here (definitely not my forte) - lets just say it was all very thought-provoking and interesting.

What I am equally as fascinated with is the art crawl concept itself. What better chance to get to know a part of Hamilton we had never been to, get a look inside several galleries in a short period of time, and interact with other appreciators of art. It was also through this crawl that we discovered the Mixed Media store, Mulberry Street Coffee House and Acclamation.

I didn't take any pictures while in the galleries (I didn't know if it was allowed and I didn't want to be THAT person!) but I can see us going back to this event again, perhaps on a warm summer's evening :)