Rochester First Fridays
First Friday. Of course all Fridays are great, but in Rochester the first Fridays of every month are particularly better. Why you might ask?
During the hours of 6pm-9pm city’s best local artists come alive.
http://www.firstfridayrochester.org/
Located in the Anderson Art’s building (a former shoe factory) off of Goodman st, is a 4 floor exhibit of over 20 artist’s studio open FREE to the public to admire and support. Did I mention live music and free food (fancy cheese) and wine ??
A team of three Me (Franny Pamoukian), Pedro Pinera, and Alex Keller where set to find this event and bring out our inner hipster instincts to share with you today.
But like we said, what is a destination without an “eventful journey” and when I say eventful, I mean missing our bus stop, walking in circles around South Wedge, discovering THE BEST food truck, finding a record store, giving a homeless man food, and stopping at Arby’s (ew) for diet Dr. Pepper in cold ol’ Rochester.
We took the Orange Line from ITS (University of Rochester) originally to Alexander and East but for some reason ended up getting off at Alexander and Monroe. We walked to the east quite a few blocks and ended up making a huge loop around the South Wedge until we stumbled upon a really great vinyl record store called “NeedleDrop Records.”
This Store, located on 304 Gregory St. in South Wedge was a great treat for our friend Alex who is really passionate about weird music. The store does have lots of classics and mainstream bands, many of them which are under 10 dollars. You can also find rare or unique stuff like an original copy of Abbey Road for $40.
“The Daily Refresher,” an amazing and inexpensive food truck located on 293 Alexander St. From garlic fries, to Cuban Burgers (which we highly recommend), it’s a great midnight snack. Open until 2:00am. There’s also a great outdoor seating area.
After these unexpected stops and a discussion of whether we should keep going or not, especially Franny nagging about her aching feet (don´t wear wedges) we kept walking along Alexander until we reached University Av. Finally, we turned on Goodman St. Anderson is but the tip of the iceberg for Rochester First Friday Nights. On our short time, we didn’t see everything that was on the map in the website (posted above). However, the numerous exhibits inside Anderson were plenty for the night.
We delved into the maze of art and food and discovered quite a lot of great art and artists. From ceramics to paintings and jewelry, there was something for every kind of taste. The environment was warm and welcoming and most people were very open and friendly.
Pedro and Alex sitting in one of the studios
. Franny deciphering the words in this piece of art.
The Military History Association of Rochester had its own exhibit at the venue. They had tons of original artifacts from the War of 1812 all the way to the Korea War. Miniatures, guns, uniforms… You name it!
We stopped by a really cool studio full of photographs, odd furniture and prints. We ended up getting 6 high quality prints for $12!
We all thought the best exhibition was the one set up by Colleen Buzzard. She was very friendly with us and took her time explaining her ideas as an artist. One of the things we liked the most was the books she had on display and that inspire her art. Below is some of her work:
Her studio (below) resembles a lab. She told us the many different ways that science shapes her very technical-looking art. Colleen Buzzard is definitely a very literate person in a very wide range of subjects. Here is a link to her website. http://colleenbuzzard.com/
We left the building at around 9:30 and called a Marketplace Taxi. We thought it would be more convenient than waiting to the nearest UR Shuttle stop. We ended up splitting $14 between the three of us.
Waiting for the taxi, we took a nice pic of ourselves!
Despite the long, exhausting hour of trying to find the venue, spending time with friends and discovering great artists was well worth it. Try it out yourselves!!!
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