By Joel Frady

Art fans will once again take to the streets of West Jefferson on the second Friday night of the next five months to enjoy the Gallery Crawl. The crawl will make its 2009 premiere from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, June 12, when a dozen local arts galleries and crafts shops will host visitors.

Jane Lonon, executive director of the Ashe County Arts Council, said that there were no real changes made to the event’s format for 2009.

“One of the main purposes of gallery crawls is to be able to continually showcase new work, and downtown West Jefferson’s art district is a strong, viable place to be, both for artists that are working and for people that just enjoy the experience of seeing new work created,” she said. She noted that the “main thrust of the gallery crawl is to offer people the chance to see a genuine array of new work being created and talk to artists one-on-one to find out about what’s behind the painting.

“To have that opportunity, one-on-one, in a fun, non-threating environment is great,” she continued.

Local artist Stephen Shoemaker, who has a studio on South Jefferson Avenue, said he is excited for the season, partially because business has been slow.

“With the economy the way that it is, I think that for any of us, things have been on the slow side,” said Shoemaker. “The things that people give up first are the things they don’t need. So I think that with our gallery crawl, it may bring a little bit more excitement back into our line of work and give people a chance to see what we’ve been doing over the winter and maybe stimulate a little business, but if you love art you do art whether you make any money or not.”

Shoemaker also said that he is impressed with the turnout the crawl has seen in the past.

“For a town our size, I think it’s really incredible the interest in the arts and the amount of art that’s provided in this region,” he said. “You can go to towns three and four times the size of West Jefferson and you won’t see that much excitement about art or people involved in the arts.”

Only eight of the 12 crawl participants are on South Jefferson Avenue, however, and in past years those off the beaten path haven’t seen the amount of traffic as more prominent shops.

Julia Bishop said that she opened Broomfield’s Gallery, located on Second Street, in May 2008 and that only a handful of crawlers make the trip down to her gallery.

“We’re just out of the main sight line of people coming into the center of town,” said Bishop, noting that many don’t venture any further and that most of her crawlers are friends or people who find the gallery “by chance.” She said that she hopes new signage, pointing people to her gallery, will help in 2009.

Bishop said that she has enjoyed the crawl because it “brings in people to meet you, and we hope they enjoy an evening out in the arts area of West Jefferson. We hope that they’ll come back, buy and tell their friends because we are trying to promote the artists.”

Lonon said that many of the galleries will offer refreshments and some will offer special themed nights. The June crawl will also feature a handful of musicians placed in galleries and on the street, weather permitting. They will place several styles of music ranging from “blues to traditional to old-time.”

To find out more about the West Jefferson Gallery Crawl, or for a map and a full list of participating galleries and shops, contact the Ashe County Arts Council at (336) 846-2787 or click to www.ashecountyarts.org.