By snoadmin
In an influx of various energies, 17 art galleries opened throughout Long Beach as a new addition to the Downtown Art Walk Saturday evening.
The art walk is currently run by volunteers, vendors and musicians who provide live entertainment. For years, the self-guided event has happened once a month, displaying an array of pop-up tents by locals selling items like handmade jewelry, clothing, art pieces and crafts on Linden Avenue.
Saturday premiered the art gallery openings as the new addition to the art walk.
Liza Simone, co-founder of LBDAW and founder of the Phantom Galleries Los Angeles County, described the addition as new and evolving, accumulating the cluster of galleries as an organized effort.
“For one, I think anytime you have a cluster of galleries, you’re going to have a lot of energy happening in one place,” Simone said. “Long Beach has a very large population of arts professionals: working artists, artists in college, artists who have studios, artists who run businesses and artists with art-related businesses. It’s still new and [we’re] hoping there will be community input and we’ll take it where the community wants it to go.”
With little promotion, the launch of the galleries hoped to grab more attention alongside the art walk. Some galleries that are regularly open with built-in, steady fan bases are using this new opportunity as official openings once a month.
Marek Dzida, director of Hellada Gallery, took over the gallery in September at its newest location on Linden Avenue. The art gallery works with local artists to run the gallery together. Beginning in March, this gallery is completely booked until September with different shows.
According to Dzida, numbers might not show it but there are more people interested in the arts due to the permanency of the location.
“Generally, the art walk was our opening night,” Dzida said, “Each artist has their own monthly show plus we have 6-feet of wall [space] for permanent exhibition. We [also] have an art contest. Anyone can bring a piece of art here and we dedicate $75 for the winner and they get exhibited here for a month.”
Patricia Didion, vice president of Long Beach Senior Hookers, said, “A lot of the places have been closed down so the city is actually allowing them to use the buildings. I think it’s really great because why [would we] let them sit there empty?”
Didion then admired a previous winning piece by Maynard Breese, which was left in the Hellada gallery, and referred to it as “a dream from a child’s dream.”
Even though there are so many activities going on simutaneously, the event was intended to look to people as a coordinated event but since it is community driven, there’s no one person who can speak about Long Beach as a whole.
Simone said, “[But] now that we have this opportunity of spaces, they are able to focus in their own backyard and see results related with experimenting with their ideas. Anytime you have free space available, this is what happens. People decide that’s when they are going to do something because that’s where they can see what we’re seeing.”
“It’s an anything-can-happen kind of vibe.” Simone continued. “We don’t know what shows might come up next week because everyone has a new idea or wants to put in a new project.”
The Long Beach Downtown Art Walk is held every second Saturday of the month from 6 – 10 p.m. at the intersection of Ocean Boulevard and Linden Avenue. For more information, visit artwalklb.com
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