by Ellen Carroll on June 10, 2009

Art a la CART, Children's Summer Art Program, Cleveland Area Rapid Transit, Daddy Love, David Parker, DJ Levi, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Joni Beamish, Jose Luis Tono, Norman Arts Council, Norman Studio Artists Association, Prairie Folk Circus, Ring of Fire Studio and Gallery, Sandy Bell Gallery, Second Friday Circuit of Art, Sonder Music Dance & Art, The Firehouse Art Center, The Green Wave, Vicki Maenza

We know times are tough, but there’s no shortage of thrifty fun this summer! After four months of cold weather or rain, June is turning up the heat for this month’s Second Friday Circuit of Art. The Norman Arts Council’s next monthly art event is scheduled from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, June 12.

The new arts loop is a monthly Cleveland Area Rapid Transit route that connects the Downtown Arts District, outlying galleries, performance halls and Campus Corner to accompany an art walk every second Friday of each month. The family-friendly gallery visit doubles as an inexpensive family outing or an inexpensive date.

June’s event features members of the Norman Studio Artists Association displaying artwork in studios along Main Street, live street musicians such as local blues rocker Daddy Love and other street performers such as the Prairie Folk Circus throughout the evening.

For only 50 cents per ride or $2 for the whole evening, visitors can park and hop on a CART trolley at Republic Bank & Trust on the corner of Main Street and University Boulevard, or any other stop on the route, and visit participating art galleries and organizations from 6 to 10 p.m. CART riders can get on or off at any of the multiple stops throughout the evening. Local onboard singer/songwriters will provide live music throughout the night for trolley riders.

More than a dozen galleries will be open throughout the evening, with most featuring free admission, live entertainment and other activities.

As part of its new Art “à la CART” series, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus will offer hands-on pottery activities, live music and short films by the deadCENTER Film Festival from 6 to 9 p.m. This month’s live music features a world music theme. Arabic and Celtic string and flute duet Arabesque, African drummer and storyteller Jahruba and Colombian pianist and singer José Luis Tono will perform in the museum’s Sandy Bell Gallery.

The Firehouse Art Center, located at 444 S. Flood Ave., will feature “The Green Wave” through June 26. On-site artists will create ceramic fish that “swim” through the air inside the gallery. Local children will paint the fish this summer during the Children’s Summer Art Program at the center.

Sonder Music, Dance & Art at 225 E. Gray St. will premiere the new exhibition Eye of Photography: Photos by David Parker with an opening reception from 7 to 10 p.m. with music by DJ Levi.

Ring of Fire Studio and Gallery in downtown Norman will display a new exhibition with ceramics by Joni Beamish, paintings by Vicki Maenza and live glass-blowing demonstrations at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Ring of Fire is located at 318 E. Main St.

MAINSITE Contemporary Art at 122 E. Main St. will continue its new exhibition of works by Jeff Dodd and Derek Erdman from 7 to 9 p.m. Dodd’s works display landscapes featuring the northern Oklahoma flatlands as his subjects. Three of the larger works will be permanently displayed in the new Norman Regional Health Center facility, to be finished this fall. Erdman’s work is an array of brightly colored popular culture iconography using a super flat style of painting that looks almost like a print. His subjects range from a dolphin in a bed to a young Michael Jackson with a squirrel in his hair.

MAINSITE also will present works by artists Holly Wilson and Deborah Brackenbury. Wilson’s sculptural wall pieces depict a world of their own, incorporating wood with highly detailed bronze and color-fused figures. Brackenbury uses found china patterned plates to provide the background for her invented creatures and ephemeral imagery. Local musicians Mark Williams and Wess McMichael will perform on the sidewalk in front of MAINSITE throughout the night.

Dozens of other free activities and openings are scheduled by members of the Norman Gallery Association and its supporting organizations throughout the night.

A complete list of each participating gallery and member of the Norman Gallery Association, as well as a CART map for the evening and instructions for riding, is available online at www.normangalleryassociation.com.

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