Every month downtown Henderson hosts Third Thursday, a family friendly event on Water Street. The festival features Thursday night Live! music performances, activities for kids, and a wide range of art for viewing and buying. While the Henderson event is often compared to its more established counterpart, First Friday, the regulars and organizers of the event believe they are worlds apart.

“The right comparison to make is to the pre-First Friday.  That’s when the arts buyers show up at the galleries in the Las Vegas Arts District.  This is directly comparable to that.  In fact, I’m teaching a course in photographic gallery management and practices, and I brought my students on the pre first Friday in July to see what the galleries were doing there compared to what they’re doing across the street right now in operating my gallery as the final project in their class. It’s very comparable in terms of numbers and the interest level of the people that come,” Gary Reese, from the Plaza Gallery said.

Vendors at Third Thursday say that the crowd is much different than the First Friday or Fourth Friday art festivals, and while it’s not as well established, the Henderson event still draws good crowds.

“They’ve done a very good job of making it a family oriented included event, where (First) Friday is really primarily for those young adults who are just out pre-partying to the rest of their Friday night,” Trev Stinnett, owner of Geosoul Arts said.

Stinnett is a Venetian glass blower who sells his work at the three art festivals every month. He said he changes his merchandise based on the crowd, and that he has boosted sales in a slow economy with smaller jewelry pieces that anyone can afford.

One of Gary Reese’s students, Nichole Beltran, sold an Oregon landscape photograph on Thursday night, and helped to run Plaza Gallery as part of her final project. She used to show her work in L.A. and has exhibited at First Friday, but she says she prefers the Henderson crowd.

 ”I like that it’s slower paced, it’s not a circus act like First Friday… It’s a lot calmer. You can really stop and take a look at some of the art galleries and get a feel of the art, instead of being rushed and pushed from piece to piece and First Friday is just crazy,” Beltran said.

Another major component of Third Thursday is the ARTsWALK event for kids. On average, a group of 40 kids roam downtown to learn about art and even create some of their own. Their leader, Susanne Reese appreciates the unique opinions kids give artists.

“The children’s perception of art and their comments about art are so wonderful. And there are a lot of things, like modern art exhibits, where the children really (get) the art. They really enjoyed it, whereas adults would walk in and they already have a mature mindset, and they would look at contemporary art and maybe wonder what it was all about. Children know exactly. They know what they like and they can tell me all about it,” Reese said.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.