Sixteen art galleries kept their lights on long after sunset on December 3 as part of the La Jolla Village Merchants Association’s First Friday Art Walk.
The event partnered with local restaurants and others to highlight the breadth of the galleries offering in The Village and promote collaboration between businesses.
Art collectors, passers-by and other visitors listened to live music, nibbled on catered bites and conversed with artists and owners as they mingled in the galleries, which were plotted on maps provided by LJVMA.
Newsletter
Get the weekly La Jolla Light delivered to your inbox
News, reports and sports on La Jolla, every Thursday for free
You may occasionally receive promotional content from La Jolla Light.
At Lik Fine Art on Prospect Street, guests sipped the Mermaids & Cowboys ‘Harbor Holiday’ cocktail. The gallery also donated a hot chocolate station and holiday cookies.
The Ivanhoe Avenue Contemporary Fine Art Gallery offered wine and a meet and greet with La Jolla artist and author Peggy Hinaekian, while in Yiddishland on Wall Street, desserts were offered to guests while viewing the illumination of the Hanukkah menorah.
In front of Yiddishland at the Krista Schumacher Art Gallery, assistants handed out individually bottled margaritas and boxed crisps and salsa from Puesto La Jolla restaurant.
L&G Projects on Herschel Avenue hosted Mexican sculptor Alejandro Martin Moreno Alonso, known as OTTO.
At the BFree Studio on Girard Avenue, a disc jockey played music for those who stopped by for champagne and tours with artists Diane Feuerstein and Andrea Leavitt.
Katey Longo, administrator of LJVMA and gallery director of Lik Fine Art, said the event was planned “to put our galleries on a pedestal” as many closed during the COVID-19 pandemic while others have opened.
She said she enjoyed getting to know other gallery owners and directing collectors to a variety of galleries across the village.
The Art Walk’s twinning with neighborhood restaurants and other venues makes the event “really interesting,” she said.
“I want businesses to help other businesses,†Longo said. She described the number of local traders who got involved as “overwhelming in a really positive way.”
The artistic walk is scheduled for the first Friday of each month until 2022. Longo said future iterations could be thematic, such as when galleries partner with yoga instructors or estheticians for a health reason.
Longo said she hoped the Art Walks “would bring more life to La Jolla on Friday nights and get people out of the house.”
The next art walk on the first Friday is scheduled from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. January 7. For more information visit lajollabythesea.com. ??
