Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Hopping Louisville

Last Friday, my mom and I went downtown for the Trolley Hop, an evening tour of art galleries held on the first Friday of every month. Although the Hop has been going on for a year or two now, neither of us had ever been. Having worked downtown last year, I had popped into a gallery or two, but I'd never really had time to explore all that Main and Market Streets had to offer, so I was excited about our adventure.

We started our tour at Glassworks, a one-of-a-kind facility that brings together glass artists of all sorts. The showroom was filled with vases, bowls, ornaments, jewelry, and a wide variety of other decorative and functional art. One of the most interesting pieces was a table whose entire top was glass. But this was no ordinary glass table where a sheet of clear glass is perched atop a frame. The glass was silver and very solid looking and it curved down around the round table as if it were a tablecloth. In fact, I originally thought it was just a table covered with an extremely starched tablecloth. It was really neat. If I were loaded, I would have bought it. If I were loaded, I would have bought a lot of things.

After Glassworks, we waited a minute for the trolley with a large group of other people, but not seeing it anywhere nearby, we just got in our car and moved down the street to the east end of Market near Clay and Shelby. In this area, the art galleries are really concentrated. We first went into PYRO, a new gallery whose name was inspired by the old fire station it resides in. There I was impressed with some black and white photos, some embroidery art, and the complimentary spread of yummy food. From there we went into Zephyr Gallery, Garden Wall, Flame Run Gallery, Swanson-Reed Gallery, Ray of Light, Towne House Antiques, and a slew of other places. The glassblowing going on at Flame Run was really interesting. Ray of Light had some neat glass lanterns. And the gardens behind Garden Wall and a number of other galleries were very relaxing.

We ended our tour on the west end of Main Street, visiting the Kentucky Museum of Arts + Design and the Chapman Friedman Gallery. We also checked out the Art Cars lining the street for the weekend's annual gathering. All in all, it was an excellent night, and I'm looking forward to making it a recurring event. With the galleries changing their exhibits frequently, it's an event that's always fresh. I highly recommend it.

I was impressed by the Trolley Hop. To be corny for a minute, it was really hopping. I don't know when the last time I saw so many people downtown was. By the time we left around 9:30pm, the streets were packed. People were downtown, enjoying the unique things that our city has to offer. While 4th Street Live does little but bring people to a select destination, the Trolley Hop gets people moving through over 30 blocks of downtown, discovering places they hadn't know about before. Not only did the art galleries get exposure, but so did all of the other businesses along the way and all of the restaurants who provided snacks at the galleries. The one thing that would make it better would be if the restaurants who serve the downtown lunch crowd stayed open for dinner on Trolley Hop nights. I guarantee they'd get a good deal of business.

If Louisville could put together more events like this, the city would really take off. It's things like this, and not things like 4th Street Live, that make Louisville a cool and interesting city. I don't think 4th Street Live is a bad idea...I just don't think it's the best direction for us to go. 4th Street Live is generic. There's nothing unique about Hard Rock Cafe, TGI Friday's or the other bars and shops that compose it. The Trolley Hop, on the other hand, is unique. Sure other cities have similar things, but they don't have our local galleries and our local restaurants. And it's these locally-owned and run places that gives Louisville it's flavor. It's these places that make Louisville somewhere I want to live. So keep 4th Street Live, but explore more unique opportunities for making Louisville into the city it can and should be. I don't want to be Baltimore or Houston or any other city. I want to be Louisville. Let's build on Louisville's strengths, not import other cities. Let's take ideas like the Trolley Hop and go from there. Let's make Louisville into the cool place that I already know it is.

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