Send your photos from Oct. 2 to the Arts Walk Committee

We are collecting photos and videos of the Arts Walk to create a virtual gallery of the event.  Photos may also be used for publicity next year.

Email your images to johnjavins(at)gmail.com or barb(at)downtownmorgantown.com.

Or drop off a CD or memory device at Arts Mon (201 High Street) or MAC (107 High Street) during regular business hours. (which can be found on the the registration page above).

Traffic gets rough around 3:30PM to 4:30PM. Come downtown around 5:00P.M, have a bite to eat, then visit MAC and Arts Mon to start your walk; these are the information centers for the event.

Morgantown Parking Tips:

1. Trying to find street parking is like playing the lottery- usually a waste of time.
Just head for the parking garages. Try to park in the garage on the corner of Spruce and Walnut Streets  (it holds the police station) or aim for the garage on University Avenue and Chestnut Street  (near Fayette Street). All parking garages are gated and accept Visa and MasterCard. Pay Station machines give almost no change so bring some singles. These garages hold 100s of spots, are pedestrian friendly, handicap accessible, and have big electronic signs showing how many spots are available.

2. All metered spaces are patrolled and ticketed 24 hours a day. Most meters are only 2 hours.

3. Pumping 2-hour meters with quarters after you have already spent 2 hours in that spot may result in getting a ticket.

The Cash Key prevents parking tickets

4. Most meters only take quarters. If you are a resident or newly moved  to the community, purchase a cash key. (sometimes called a Meter Peter). Cash keys are rechargeable debit devices that work in all parking meters and cost $15-deposit, available at the Parking Authority Office (in the Public Safety Building at the Spruce Street Parking Garage). Cash keys are amazing and wonderful.

This is the only parking garage with 10-hour parking meters. Other garages have no meters. This is next to Black Bear Burritos across the street from Adventures Edge and 123 Pleasant Street.

5. The parking garage on Pleasant Street has ten hour meters and does not require getting a ticket and paying and at a pay station.

6. Red colored meters are totally safe and fine to park in during the Arts Walk.  Just make sure there is not a Police Parking sign attached to it.

7. PARKING GARAGES ARE GREAT… PLEASE USE THEM and have a wonderful worry-free evening!

Below is the official Arts Walk Press Release

Culture Makers Take Over Downtown for Arts Walk 2009

Morgantown WV (9-17-2009) — Over 60 artists, 50 businesses, and eight musicians are taking over Morgantown for Arts Walk, Friday, October, 2, 6-9PM.  Main Street Morgantown’s Arts Walk 2009 is bigger, better, faster and stronger than ever before. Co-sponsored by MAC and Arts Mon, the festivities are happening on WVU Fall Family Weekend. Among other additions this year’s event features three regional video artists and music in the streets…not to mention prizes donated by the WVU Parents’ Club.

Unlike past Arts Walks this year’s event has grown to include new activities and music all over the streets.  Eight musical acts will perform downtown on Friday evening, with five musicians on the sidewalks of High Street. Keeping up with the times, two regional video artists will be projecting on buildings. Sonya Lucas, a Columbus, OH based electronic media artist originally from WV, and Scott Andrew, a Pittsburgh, PA based electronic media artist, have created original electronic works for Morgantown on Friday night.  Stanley Boyd Palmieri will also have electronic art on video monitors.

If you are looking for more direction than just exploring downtown, Arts Walk has created a shoe hunt.  In the theme of “walking”, eight pairs of shoes have been oddly decorated. During the Arts Walk half of each pair will be on display in the Main Street window between Arts Mon and Huntington Bank, while the mates will be located in businesses around downtown. The Arts Walk brochure will have a form that participants stamp at each shoe location. When six stamps have been collected, the brochure can be dropped at any shoe location and your name will be put in the running for the WVU Parents’ Club Gift Basket.

Local arts organizers (Arts Mon, MAC) are hosting specials events for Arts Walk on Friday as well. “Harvest 2009” is opening at Arts Mon’s Jackson Kelly Gallery, featuring 14 regional artists. Watercolor works by Erin Webb, and installation, art glass, and video by Aimee Sones as well as a chamber music performance well be at MAC. If you want more information about what is planned, volunteers will be manning information carts downtown Morgantown that evening to assist you. Also the Arts Walk has a brand new website (www.artswalk.org) which works on your mobile phone and has tons of information about parking, artists, features and the shoe hunt.

Please visit www.ArtsWalk.org for more detailed information or www.DowntownMorgantown.com to learn more about Main Street Morgantown. Arts Walk is happening Friday, October 2, 2009, 6-9 PM in downtown Morgantown WV.

Publicity Contact Information

Contact Main Street Morgantown:

Barb Watkins barb@downtownmorgantown.com (304) 292-0168

Monongalia Arts Center:

John Javins at johnjavins@mac.com (304) 292-3325

See Businesses and their featured Artists here!

http://www.artswalk.org/?page_id=3

If you check out the Businesses tab above, we have updated it to reflect the current registered businesses and artists for Arts Walk.

A current list of musicians can also be found here!

http://www.artswalk.org/?page_id=6

After some phone calls and late night meetings, Arts Walk has recruited two video artists to present installations on the sides of downtown buildings. Of course you can only experience the fun on the night of Arts Walk, Friday October 2, 2009, 6-9:00PM. Below is a little about the artists.

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Sonya Lucas

Sonya Lucas is an electronic media artist based out of Columbus, OH. She is also the amazing person who produced and donated the Arts Walk 2009 public service announcement. Click here to visit the animations on her website!

Scott Andrew

Scott Andrew is an electronic media artist in Pittsburgh, PA. For a sample of his recent work click on this link to view his window installation for the gallery “Future Tenant” located in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District.

• In the Main Street window (next to Arts Mon) on High Street you will see eight oddly decorated shoes.
• On the night of the event (Friday, Oct. 2, 6-9PM) the mates to these shoes will be distributed to undisclosed participating businesses around town.
• Printed in the event brochure, (available at every participating business Friday Oct.2) there is a perforated tab with 8 stamp areas.
• Your goal is to get at least six of the eight areas stamped.  Attached to each oddly-decorated-shoe display, there is a unique stamp and drop box.
• After you have at least six unique stamps, fill out the contact information on the perforated tab and drop it in any of the eight drop-boxes located with the shoe displays.

At the end of the event, we will collect the fruits of your labor and draw a name to win a fabulous WVU gift basket, courtesy of the WVU Mountaineer Parents Club.  The odds are high that you could win. If nothing else, this is great activity to keep your evening fun and find places you never knew existed.

Find the mates to these shoes in the Main Street window display and enter to win a swank gift basket!

This is an independent design effort co-sponsored by MAC and Arts Mon (not associated with Main Street) to promote and raise funds for the Arts Walk

Local artist and community supporter Aaron Williams was asked by MAC and Arts Mon to design an independent poster for the Arts Walk. This poster would be printed in limited edition and totally unique.  He was given much independence to create a unique work of art that operated as a stand-alone unit and a communicative device that reinterpreted the idea of “Arts Walk.” This poster is 17″ tall and 9″ wide, making it easy and affordable to frame and easy to post around town.  Numbered posters will be available for sale at Arts Mon and MAC, Tuesday, September 15, 2009 for a mere $10.  All proceeds from the poster sales go towards funding Arts Walk and local gallery initiatives.

(Morgantown Parking and Arts Walk info centers- mapped above)

If you are not familiar with Morgantown, downtown can be daunting to navigate.  Do not be intimidated. Morgantown is mostly harmless… highly walkable, fun and always fresh.

Start the evening right by parking in a parking garage. They are cheap, safe, well lit and well-located, plus they take Visa and Mastercard.  You can read the parking tips article on this site for more information about parking.

Once you park in a garage, walk 1 block towards High Street (all garages are within one black of High Street). Then walk one-to-two blocks to Arts Monongahela (Arts Mon) or Monongalia Arts Center (MAC).

Arts Mon is located next to Huntington Bank, identified by its white marble late 1960s facade, on the corner of High Street and Pleasant Street. Arts Mon is a local art gallery and arts promoter.  If all else fails, look for the Arts Walk banner hanging across High Street. This banner is connected to the floor above Arts Mon’s office and gallery.

Monongalia Arts Center is West Virginia’s oldest independent Arts and Culture center and is home to M.T. Pockets Theatre as well as over 2,000 sq. ft. of gallery space.  MAC is easy to find, on the corner of High Street and Kirk Street.  If you are not from the Morgantown area, look up and over to locate the Hotel Morgan; it’s a tall building with a huge red neon sign next to a great looking Art Deco movie theater. MAC is next door to the Hotel Morgan. MAC is an impressive 15,000 sq. ft. Neoclassical stone building, and the only building in downtown with a lawn. Weather permitting, there are black tables and chairs on the sidewalk in front of it.  MAC also has free WiFi.

Both Arts Mon and MAC are information points for the Arts Walk and sponsors of the event.  From here you can get the inside scoop on where the artists are and what’s happening downtown, not to mention where to eat and where to play afterwards.

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If you are feeling more adventurous… just look for the black tiki torches all over downtown. Participating businesses and places with artists are marked by lit tiki torches like something out of Survivor.  The downtown area consists of Spruce Street, High Street, Chestnut Street, and Beechurst Ave, from the South High Street bridge to Willey Street.