the tough questions

third thursday march

I am not certain when this started, but a part of me sort of hopes that First Friday had a part in it. I came across a flyer for Third Thursday while out a few weeks ago, and knew that if it was anything like the Canton incarnation, it would be a blast. The Akron Art Museum stayed open during the evening hours to let people have a chance to hang out in a local art center and hear a live concert by The Twilight.

I do want to come across fairly, because I did think that it was a pretty cool event if it’s just starting out. I’ve felt the pain of trying to get big events off the ground, so the smaller crowd was just fine. The problem was just that other than the concert, there was nothing really to do that didn’t cost money. I mean, I realize that you have to be able to make money to make this stuff work, but what makes First Friday so much fun is that there are a handful of different galleries that you can just wander through while catching local music. Buying food and doing other shopping here and there comes naturally from that. I really wanted to go and do things for Third Thursday, but just to visit even the main galleries, I still had to get an admission pass? Come on guys, it’s four hours once a month. I think you could probably donate a little bit of that time to the people coming to see the show and buy food in your lobby. I mean, if you’re serious about trying to get more Akron U students or young people involved at all, there needs to be something else going on.

Speaking of the show, The Twilight seemed to have a good time with the small crowd. There was some banter back and forth between songs from the lead to the people in the lobby, which is always fun. I like seeing bands get into the location they’re playing. I didn’t know much about them before Thursday, but I liked what I heard. I think I liked their opening song the most, but they had some solid upbeat rock going on. I can pretty easily see why Cleveland Magazine had them as last year’s best band.

I did check out some of the exhibits before the band got started, but I’ll get into those mostly another time. The only one that I really want to mention is a set of collaborative works between One South High students and local artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson in the Corbin Gallery.

The kids took her inventive and earthy style to the museum, recreating scenes inspired by the “RagGonNons” she created. The really ridiculous bit about these works was that these are fourth-grade students, some of whom understand a few of the gallery pieces better than I do, I’m pretty sure. It’s only open for a couple more days (two, in fact) but check it out if you have the chance.

As for Third Thursday, the next one comes up in April, with live music from The Mickeys, who also played at the First Friday in March. I’ll be looking forward to it, but I really hope that they take a few more cues from Canton on this. Get more people (or better yet, other Akron galleries) involved, and it would be a really great event.