May 1, 2003
1st Fridays Art Walk organizers reach out to merchants
ArtLife Society is encouraging downtown stores to stay open.
By ERIK GABLE
Ledger staff writer
Organizers of Fairfield's 1st Fridays Art Walk are hoping more downtown businesses will get in on the act, staying open late on the first Friday of every month to draw some of the art walk crowds to their stores.
Stacey Hurlin of ArtLife Society, the group sponsoring the monthly event, said Dawn McKay is talking to merchants around the Fairfield square about ways to take advantage of the art walk.
McKay is "brainstorming with them to help them figure out what would work for their business enhancement, what could help them increase their sales as a result of the art walk,"Hurlin said.
Rosie Witherspoon, owner of At Home Store on the square, said while she doesn't necessarily make many sales during art walks, staying open increases her exposure.
"I think it makes people aware that I'm here,"Witherspoon said. Witherspoon plans to have a barbecue demonstration in front of her store this Friday. That's the kind of involvement Hurlin would like to see from more downtown merchants. It adds to the fun and it will definitely help her business, Hurlin said.
Hurlin predicts 1,000 people will turn out for the May art walk, a number she thinks is reasonable since the weather is warm and the days are getting longer. It sort of stands to reason that if you have 1,000 people on the square, it would be a wise step for merchants to find a way to siphon some of those people off to their stores, she said.
Hurlin said the art walk is expanding beyond just galleries, with events like Friday 's planned 20-minute variety show, repeating four times over the course of the evening.
"There's a lot of people who don't care about art, but they might be interested from another angle ó that the stores are open, that there's entertainment available,"Hurlin said.
Different merchants will need to use different approaches to draw customers from the art walk, Hurlin said, but ìI think it behooves them to stay open.
"It's just a really great thing for the economic base of Fairfield," she said.
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