First Friday Celebrates Waterville's Destination as an Arts Hub

Bob Keyes, Colby News, February 28, 2023

This month’s festivities, from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, are centered around the opening of the Ashley Bryan/Paul Wilson exhibition Take the World into Your Arms at the Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the newly opened Paul J. Schupf Art Center downtown, as well the Youth Art Month exhibition Your Art, Your Story. Now in its ninth year, the opening of the youth art exhibition draws hundreds of families, and this year student artwork will be on view at both the Ticonic Gallery at Schupf Arts and down the street at the Greene Block + Studios.

Organizers see First Friday as a way to draw people downtown to show off the changes that have occurred since the pandemic, including new buildings and traffic patterns—and new energy emanating from the city’s growing artistic core. They want it to build momentum and become a community magnet and point of civic pride.

Businesses and artists across downtown, including those associated with the Lunder Institute for American Art, are getting involved with special events, First Friday cocktails, and extended hours and discounts.