The Partnership will put several local artists on display through the downtown corridor on Friday as it hosts an Art Walk.
The Art Walk is scheduled for 2-5 p.m. Friday as part of The Partnership’s New South Weekends, which pair events with home Mississippi State football games. Partnership Special Events and Projects Coordinator Paige Watson said the Art Walk will have a focus both on the artists who are participating and several partnering stores that will have maps and offer discounts during the event.
“We have nine artists and 14 different stores participating that will have maps of where the artists are located across the Main Street district,” Watson said. “In those stores, you will receive 15 percent off, so it’s like a big shopping retail promotion — something fun just for people who are getting into town or coming down for the game.”
Most of the artists are local, Watson said, and the Starkville Area Arts Council and Sunday Funday committee helped recruit participating artists for the event.
“We’re also going to be putting out chalk on the sidewalk for kids,” she said. “We’ll set it out during the event so if there are small children or anybody downtown, they’re more than welcome to have fun with the chalk.”
Participating artists include Dunkington Art, Patrick L. Cross, Amanda Doll, Meekayll Boyd, Carla De Cavalcanti Teixeira, Angelle Turner, Joe MacGowan and Sarah Kilpatrick. Those eight artists will be set up along Main Street between Washington Street and Montgomery Street.
Express Yourself! Art with the T.K. Martin Center is also participating and will be set up at the Cotton Crossing shopping center on Russell Street.
Like Watson, Partnership Interim CEO Jennifer Gregory said the Art Walk is a way to showcase Starkville’s art culture as visitors come into town for the MSU football game against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
“Bringing back the Art Walk will be a really good way for us to promote the creative culture we have in Starkville,” Prather said. “We do a great job of celebrating that every day, but it’s a good way to showcase that to visitors coming in on a big weekend.”
Watson added there are opportunities for The Partnership to hold the event more often.
“We’ve got so much vibrant art going on and we want to keep that momentum going,” she said. “I think there’s definitely an option to have this gain in the spring or possibly even seasonally if it goes well, and people tend to like it.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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