First Fridays return on May 5
COSHOCTON – Our Town Coshocton’s First Friday season has rolled back around.
“An important piece of main street organizations is bringing awareness to downtowns,” said Barb Karr, president of Our Town Coshocton. “We need people to come out and see what we have.”
The downtown fun will kick off with First Arts Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 5 with the Dogwood Youth Arts Chalk & Roll being organized by the Pomerene Center for the Arts.
Bring your bikes to the old Central Elementary School lot at 724 Walnut St. at 5 p.m. and join the ride down Main Street at 5:30 p.m. Some decorations will be provided to participants, but people are encouraged to decorate on their own. Small prizes will be awarded to largest group, the clunker, and noisiest and best decorated. The Walhonding Rube Band will play as bike riders get ready and lead the parade down Main Street.
The chalk art contest in the artPARK on Main Street is being organized by the Pomerene Center for the Arts and will feature four categories: Professional, amateur, youth (age 18 and under), and team. Professionals will have a 5×5 area to decorate and all others will be given a 3×3 space. There also will be three artists from the Ohio Chalk Art Guild demonstrating their skills. To register for the contest, visit the Pomerene Center for the Arts Facebook page where you can download a form. Designs should incorporate the bicycle theme of the event.
“Winners will be selected by people’s choice,” said Anne Cornell, artistic director at the Pomerene Center. “For $1 people will be given four tickets that are color coded and they can vote for their favorite in each category. Professionals can win $250 and the winners in the other three categories will receive $100.”
A free draw area also will be set up for those who do not want to compete.
The evening also will include music on the artPARK concrete stage by The Committed, which features local artist Tanner Davis on the guitar, vendors, games and a car show.
Davis, a student at Ridgewood High School, travels to Cleveland every week to practice with his band mates who are from the Cleveland area.
“We play mostly rock and roll and soul music and do covers,” he said. “I’m looking forward to having all of my friends around here get to see what I’ve been doing. A lot of people know I play the guitar, but haven’t seen what I do.”
After graduation Davis plans to continue working with Pete Skjold who builds bass guitars and continue playing music with his friends from Cleveland in hopes of getting gigs around there and possibly in Coshocton.
The Committed will start playing at 6:30 p.m. and Davis said some of the cover songs they do are by Aretha Franklin and Joe Cocker.
“There is something for every generation,” he said.
Another activity planned for the artPARK that evening is the unveiling of the art piece students from Coshocton High School created.
Cornell is very thankful for everyone who has helped the students with their work of art including: McWane Ductile, Crozier Welding, Lee’s Glass, Muskingum Grinding, and Hathaway Inc.
“When you are installing a 2,000 pound piece you need lots of expertise,” she said.
The ribbon cutting for the students’ project will take place at 6 p.m. Friday, May 5.
Themes for the rest of the First Fridays include: June 2 – Safety & Clubs Friday; July 7 – Dog Days of Summer; Aug. 4 – First Farm Friday; Sept. 1-2 – Appalachian Bacon Nation.
Karr said they are continuing to reach out to and make connections with other like-minded organizations to work with on First Fridays. They are already planning on working with Brad Fuller and his Appalachian Bacon Nation festival for the September First Friday and have an exciting event planned for July 7 that will take activities past the typical 8 p.m. finish time.
“We are trying to fund a courthouse lighting project,” Karr said. “We already have permission from the commissioners and the judge. The light company we’ve talked to will do a presentation on July 7 on one side of the courthouse. We can use what they offer all year round because they have a control box that changes designs.”
Sponsors for the May 5 event include Jones Metal Products, MFM Building Products and Farmers Insurance Jon Ianniello Agency, who is the major sponsor for all First Fridays.
“We’ve started a new hash tag, #coshoctonworkstogether,” Cornell said. “People always talk about this and I think it’s important to say that yes we do this.”
If you would like to volunteer to help at First Fridays, want more information on how to get involved, or would like to receive the Our Town Coshocton newsletter, e-mail ourtowncoshocton@gmail.com or call 740-202-1191. You also can visit the Our Town Coshocton Facebook page.
Category: Arts & Entertainment
