The First Friday Art Walk supports both the artists and businesses of Bemidji’s downtown community by providing a festive self-guided walking tour featuring an average of 8 artist receptions each month throughout downtown Bemidji’s restaurants, libraries, schools, and businesses. Watermark Art Center is the anchor exhibitor of the First Friday Art Walk, as well as its media liaison.

An estimated 100 people are out each month during the First Friday Art Walk to attend art openings, visit with artists, and listen to artist talks, live music, readings, or demonstrations. The fun continues into the evening as attendees visit area restaurants and bars for musical entertainment, food, and drink.

View the interactive map for this month here!

Bemidji First Friday Art Walk
March 1, 2019

Continuing Exhibits
available general operating hours

Wild Hare Bistro and Coffeehouse – Wild Hare will continue the exhibit by visual artist and 2017-2018 Region 2 Artist Fellow, Kelli Lien. Ms. Lien is exhibiting both watercolor and collage. This activity is made possible, in part, by a Region 2 Arts Council Artist Fellowship with funding from the McKnight Foundation. Wild Hare is open 7 am – 5 p.m. and is located at 523 Minnesota Ave.

Neilson Place continues their exhibit featuring the photography of Bob Panther. View the work from 8 am – 8 pm. Neilson Place is located on the Sanford WoodsEdge campus, 1000 Anne Street NW.

New Exhibits
reception times vary

Gallery North – Stop by Gallery North’s First Friday open house on March 1st, 2-5 pm and visit with Featured Artist, Gallery North member Charles Alberti. Alberti will be featuring his latest original canvas paintings. Alberti grew up in Chicago. He earned a BFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago and an M.Ed. and Ph.D. at Loyola University of Chicago. He has had shows in New York, Chicago, California, Connecticut, Texas and Minnesota. His artwork is in private, corporate and museum collections in the states and abroad. The Arial Gallery in New York once reviewed his work as: “An artist who explores the hidden recesses of the mind with profound and disquieting insight, Alberti probes human psychology by means of brilliantly colored quasi surrealistic depictions of primal symbols done in a variety of media.” Gallery North is located at 310 4^th St NW.

Bemidji State University – The 10^th Annual Midwinter Interlude Faculty/Staff Arts & Crafts Exhibit will hold an Open House on Friday, March 1 from 2-5 pm in the Ramsey Gallery in Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex at Bemidji State University.  The show will feature work from faculty and staff across campus as well as musical entertainment and refreshments for the Open House. Come and join us as BSU faculty and staff share their talents and brighten up the midwinter doldrums with their work. The Ramsey Gallery is open to the public with hours from 8 am – 10pm Monday-Friday.

NWICDC – The Northwest Indian Community Development Center will be hosting ten local artisans during the March 1st First Friday Art Walk. From 3 – 7 p.m., they will feature fabric art, clay sculptures, acrylic paintings, beadwork and more. A light supper of soup and frybread will be available for $5. NWICDC is located at 1819 Bemidji Ave N.

Headwaters Music – Headwaters Music & Arts will host the tapestries of Kristin Majkrzak through the month of March. The tapestries in this exhibit were all created through the use of hand manipulated weaving techniques, mostly on small looms. The exhibit explores the intersection of the visual and the verbal, featuring tapestries that Majkrzak based on her poetry. An opening reception will take place from 4-6 pm on Friday, March 1st, at Headwaters Music & Arts. Headwaters Music is located at 519 Minnesota Ave NW.

Watermark Art Center will host an artist reception on March 1 from 5 – 7 p.m. during the First Friday Art Walk. Featured presenter will be Xilam Balam Ybarra, whose traditional clay flutes are part of Watermark’s current exhibit, Madwewe – It Is Heard. The exhibit focuses on the ways in which people hear culture, including songs, words, sounds and more. At 5 p.m., Ybarra and his wife, Rebekah, will introduce the flutes in a traditional manner and share about their significance in the Mayan culture. The presentation will involve both discussion and playing of the flutes. Following this, Ybarra will do a demonstration on how to make traditional clay flutes. Ybarra is a 2018 Mcknight Ceramics Fellow. He works in a variety of mediums including music, ceramics, painting, screen-printing, stone carving and epigraphy. He is also the co-founder of Electric Machete Studios, a Latinx art & music production house in St. Paul. Watermark is located at 505 Bemidji Ave N.