Our ambitions are big!
We fully understand the many benefits of the Arts and how they make communities even better. To that end, a group of community builders have come together to build upon the existing Arts momentum in Amherstburg. Our first step to making the Arts a major point of difference for the town will commence with an Art Crawl.
Our hopes … our long term plan … our dream … is for the Art Crawl to grow into a weekend Arts Festival that embraces art, music, literature …
“The first step is to say you can.” —Will Smith
But every great idea must start with a first step, and our first step happens September 9th — the first annual Amherstburg Art Crawl. The Gibson Gallery, Art Windsor-Essex, and a group of twenty local businesses that call themselves The Core have come together to create the first step in that journey.
Our Art Crawl is a fully accessible 1 km walking tour through downtown Amherstburg. It starts at the ‘Art Alley’ behind the River Bookshop, where you will see beautiful murals from DERKZ and David Creed. You will also meet Indigenous artist Naomi Peters, who will help us acknowledge that the land on which we gather, live, and raise our families is the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, and of the Huron-Wendat and Wyandot Peoples. She will do this by unveiling two murals that recognize Shawnee Chief Tecumseh.
The crawl will then move west down Murray Street … not only will you see the wonderful heritage restoration that is going on there, but you will meet the first of many Gibson Gallery artists displaying their work en route.
Next up is Flow Cafe & Bikes on Dalhousie where you will meet Art Windsor-Essex’s Nadja who has been involved in the creation of the eight ‘Look Again! Outside: Amherstburg’ reproductions that are installed around town. Nadja will guide you on a walk that weaves through the beautiful King's Navy Yard Park. Along the way, she will describe six of those reproductions. You will also meet many more gallery artists and members of the Amherstburg Fort Malden Horticultural Society, an active volunteer organization that does many things to help make the town more beautiful.
Then it’s on to Richmond Street and a stop at Musicland, where owner Bethany D'Alimonte will perform three Beatles songs from her open stage.
The walk continues east on Richmond, passing a reproduction by Group of Seven artist Tom Thomson and a huge Boblo boat mural by DERKZ.
Less than three short blocks further east we end the crawl at the Gibson Gallery, housed in the former 1896 Michigan Central Railroad Station, also featured in Heritage Buildings of Amherstburg. There you will be greeted by all the artists you’ve met on the walk, hear live music, and enjoy free refreshments.
After that, the first annual Amherstburg Art Crawl will be in the books, and we will be one step closer to our long-term Arts Festival dream.
We hope to see you there!
-
The event starts a 1pm and the closing reception will be finished just after 4pm. Attendance is free. No reservations are required. It will happen rain or shine. If you have questions, please contact the Gibson Gallery or River Bookshop.
The River Bookshop Team is proud to be part of this creative initiative.