On the last Friday of every month there is an event in Wichita known as Final Friday. I had heard about this in the past from friends of mine who have performed for it, or had people who had art being shown off during it, but I never truly knew what it was. Well on Friday July 26th I was able to find out! My husband and I's friends, Kyle and Tuyet (yes another Kyle so he will be known from now on as Kyle L.) invited us to go along with them.
We had planned to meet up with them in front of the Old Town Warren Theatres. Since Tuyet and Kyle L were going to be late meeting up with us we decided to take off the girls' sundresses and let them run through the water fountains in front of the theatre. Ceri was way more into than Brigid.
When Tuyet and Kyle L showed up we changed the girls, got them dressed, then walked all the way to Gallery VII over near St. Francis and Douglass I believe. Inside it was packed with artists and art lovers showing their stuff. Kyle L.'s mom and sister both had art in it, and they were very good. There was also a woman who thought the twins were so adorable that she took pictures of them so she could paint them. I let her, but I kind of wonder if she had had too much of the free wine because she was acting a little tipsy. We were also able to see some artists painting their newest pieces. You couldn't take any pictures of paintings without an artist's permission so there aren't a lot of pictures of art. The one that I took of the two children was painted by a woman named Joie (pronounced Joey).
There was another gallery that was attached to Gallery XII, but I don't know what the name of it was. We met a Japanese artist in there, and she just adored the girls! I was able to get both of their pictures with her in her formal kimono. She then made a crane for the girls, and had me make a wish for them, and told me that the crane would bring us peace. It was such a nice thing for her to do for us!
After this we walked to the next gallery, Mead Street Gallery. In this gallery we actually bought a piece of art! There was a blown glass orca that was on clearance for $10, that we ended up getting for $8 for a chip that was in its' tail (I did not ask for a discount, I hadn't even known about the chip until the check out lady pointed it out to me). We got it for Ares, and he loved it! It is now proudly on his bookshelf. After we had bought our whale we explored the rest of the gallery.
We then walked back to where we had started, and went to visit City Arts. The exhibit that they had on display was of an organization called Arc. This organization works with children and teens who have mental or physical disabilities and have them express their feelings through art. I didn't know if the same rule applied to not take pictures of the art work so I didn't take any pictures inside the City Art building.
Once we finished our tour of the City Arts exhibits we decided to go on a carriage ride around downtown. I had never been on a carriage ride before, and it was exciting getting to go. I would like to go again sometime, but without two one year olds. Who would have thought twin toddlers would be ornery on a carriage ride! ;) They weren't too bad though, we got lucky! We also ran into our cousin Shay when we first started our ride, and then when we finished my cousin Steffy was the one who wanted was next to take a turn! What a small place downtown is!
While we were exploring the galleries downtown there was also a live band that was part of an outside concert series that plays throughout the year outside the Old Town Warren Theatre. They played lots of good music, and we enjoyed singing along to some of the songs while walking around. If you are ever looking for something to do, I would check out what is going on in your local downtown area.
