Comments on First Thursday Simplified

you're right jen - amazing to think there wasn't anything before, but this should really help all the galleries out. the maps are super-helpful, and the whole site is really well designed. did you notice there are no ads on the site?!

Fantastic!

I feel tipsy already!

I'm betting I'll be drunk before we leave the block with Kucera and SOIL.

I'm all for it to a degree. But looking at the site reminds me that 1st Thursday's are to me, as a longtime Seattleite, about the street artists. And I see nothing but "guidelines for submissions" for them. Nothing about the art in the park, just gallery hoopla.

Oh hurray. Back when the pissy galleries kicked the street artists to the northern park, that sucked, then they started charging the street artists fees. And now the fucking whole street art scene is over run with bead stringers, and vendors, who aren't there really as "artists".

Now there's a few great street artists still there. There's about 10 regular painters, one or two of whom are amazing. But this site seems more like Artwalk just got more Yuppie.

Before there were submission guidelines it was about the freedom to show up with your art and express yourself.

New York State has often ruled Street Art as a Constitutional Right. Seattle Artists need to fight this trend here in Washington, and realize that in big ways and small artists are on the front line when it comes to free speech rights. Allowing yourself to be boxed in, given cubicles of space, and regulated by submission guidelines, is fundamentally altering your right to express yourself in a traditional Seattle art forum.

there is a whole art in the park section and a profile for it.

*sigh* it's beautiful. . . It looks so good that it makes me actually want to go to First Thursday!

Give these guys a medal! Fabulous site, ad-free, easy to navigate, and so fresh and so clean! It's nice to see good design representing Seattle.

If you have not yet checked out this site, DO SO NOW! If you are planning a trip to Pioneer Square to check out the art's scene--First Thursday or the other 29 days of the month--this is the place to start!