The second annual Art Walk Downtown will convert historic downtown Columbus into a lively arts festival Thursday night.
The Columbus Arts Council and Main Street Columbus are partnering to pair around 30 artists with 21 local businesses. This will turn downtown into a walking art gallery from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. Thursday night. Families can venture from venue to venue to view a wide range of art and hear live music.
Main Street Director Barbara Bigelow said there was a good turnout at last year’s Art Walk. This year, more merchants and artists are participating.
“We have so many talented people in Columbus — artists, musicians,” Bigelow said. “It’s great to showcase that.”
Attendees will be able to not only view great art, but witness art in progress and create some themselves.
Local potter Cathryn Boyer will plant her wheel outside the Arts Center, where passers-by will be able to watch Boyer work the clay and create. Participators in the Art Walk can stop into the Rosenzweig Arts Center and make an origami butterfly. The butterflies will be assembled by the Arts Council for a project. On a not so artsy, but overall important note, Saum Chiropractic Clinic will be offering spinal screenings at Party and Paper.
Among the work featured in this year’s Art Walk Downtown will be art from the T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability at Mississippi State University. The center works with people who have severe physical disabilites to help them through technology to participate in activities that would otherwise be very challenging. This year marks the center’s 10th anniversary.
“What we do allows individuals who have never been able to participate in art programs, because they physically haven’t been able to do so themselves, to create,” said Judy Duncan, a case manager with the T.K. Martin Center.
Duncan said the art that will appear in this year’s Art Walk will be from the “Express Yourself” art program. Thursday night, work done by the Express Yourself group can be seen at Renee Reedy Photography & Cinematography. Duncan said the group did a show with the Columbus Arts Council last year, which put them on a mailing list to be invited to participate in this event. Duncan said this event allows artists from the T.K. Martin Center to work and interact with their peers in the art world, something their disabilities prevent them from doing on a day-to-day basis. Art from the T.K. Martin Center can be seen year-round at the Martha Lipsey Art Gallery in Starkville.
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