One City Art Festival logo.

Earlier this month, I posted about the official announcement of the One City Art Festival, Macon’s first, city-wide visual art festival. The event, which is a collaboration of six local arts organizations, is scheduled to kick off on Thursday night at a pop-up gallery in the former Karsten and Denson hardware store in Downtown. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased online now.

Of course, the preview party is only the beginning. The festival is scheduled to coincide with First Friday activities in downtown Macon, which is well-known for it’s monthly art crawl. October’s First Friday will be the biggest art crawl of the year thanks to the coordinated efforts of the organizations involved.

On Friday, don’t miss:

From MAA’s postcard for “Sense of Place,” featuring a painting by Daly Smith.

“Sense of Place” at Macon Arts Alliance featuring work by Jim Bodell and Daly Smith. According to MAA’s website, “Bodell’s metal sculptures and Smith’s colorful paintings represent wildly different approaches to art making, but both are expressly linked to Macon.”

Images from “Redefining the Canvas” at The 567 Center for Renewal. Images courtesy of The 567

“Redefining the Canvas” at The 567 Center for Renewal features works inspired by street art and urban themes. Five artists will be featured, including Keef Cross (Atlanta), Brian Hebert (Atlanta), Charvis Harrell (Macon), Dwayne Kendrick (Macon), and Craig Burkhalter (Macon).

The Smoke School of Art members. Photo courtesy of the Tubman Museum

“Pack a Pistol: A Smoke School of Art Exhibition” at the Tubman African American Museum features the work of members of the Smoke School of Art Collective from Atlanta. A reception for this exhibit was held a while back, and I’ve posted about it both here and here.

The “Fall Members Show” at the Contemporary Arts Exchange features open artist studios and two galleries of work by members of the arts exchange. Expect to see large-scale landscape paintings, screen prints, letter press, mixed media painting, photography and more.

“One City Art Festival Pop-Up Gallery” at the Karsten and Denson Building on Third Street in downtown Macon. Whether you make it to the preview party or not, be sure to stop by on First Friday. The One City Art Festival is taking First Friday to a new level. The coordination and addition of the pop-up gallery should make for an incredible evening.

All Friday art crawl events are from 5-9 p.m. and free to attend.

Remember, the festival continues through Sunday, so visit the festival’s website for a complete schedule.