Discussion: Open Studio Events/First Friday in RiNo

Hello RiNos,

After listening to some feedback from art patrons last Friday (First Friday for November), I did a little thinking and wanted to pose some suggestions in hopes of getting a discussion going regarding open studio events. I probably saw 30 people at my event. Several people commented on how surprised they were that so many locations were not open for November’s First Friday (only 11 of us advertised events in The November Crow), in comparison to last month (i.e. Ride The RiNo). My first suggestion is this- for everyone who is participating in a First Friday event, it would be very helpful to have a printed list of other RiNo locations that are open that evening. Because RiNo is spread out more than, say, Santa Fe, this helps patrons plan out their evening, so they’re not wasting time driving to a location that isn’t open.
 
My second suggestion is for more RiNo locations to consider being open for First Friday events. In my opinion, the artists/galleries on Santa Fe have established quite a reputation for themselves, while we are building ours. That said, I feel like we had some momentum coming off of our events in October. With so few places open for November, I fear we may be inadvertently hurting our efforts. I know we all can’t be open every month (certainly, some months just aren’t worth it for many reasons), but I’m wondering if there’s any way we can get more folks who are sitting on the fence to try more often than not to be open on First Fridays.

Any thoughts as to why or why not this may be a good idea, or other suggestions for consistency in future events would be welcome. I look forward to reading your responses.

Sincerely,
Jared Steinberg

Riverside Cemetery Honorary RiNo

Riverside Cemetery, our neighbor to the north, needs some love. It’s Denver’s oldest and most neglected cemetery. If you haven’t visited please do; the sculpture is beautiful (it’s an art lovers paradise) and the setting is lovely along the Platte River- despite the industrial neighbors.

The newly minted Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery will have their first meeting Saturday November 17th at 11am. Riverside needs people with ideas, enthusiasm, time, money, or any combination of the above. More information is available on their website.

The Denver Post wrote an article on the efforts featuring co-organizers Jan Allan and Hugh Graham .The image below is courtesy Denver Public Library’s Western History Department.