COLORADO SPRINGS — It’s National Arts and Humanities month and to celebrate, a group of local artists has come together to organize a fun, “Neighborhood Arts and Crafts Crawl,” this Saturday for the entire community to enjoy.
The crawl started in 2019 when local New Earth Beads artist, Michelle Hair decided to get a group of her neighbors, all artists, together and open up the crawl to the community. Michelle had been hosting an open studio around the holidays for just artists for some time. It was here the group of artists discovered how close they live to one another and how vibrant the local art community is in the Springs. This discovery inspired them to open up their studios to the community in 2019. During the pandemic, they took a break from the crawl, but they’re excited to be back in action this year.
The crawl will feature 12 artists at 8 locations. It’s a chance to visit each studio and find unique pieces.
“It’s great. This is arts month and I’m lucky to live in a community that has several local artists, all doing different kinds of things. From beat work to ceramic work that I do, steelwork, that I do, to magnets, to watercolors, woodworking,” said Sandy Friedma, a local artist.
“A lot of people are surprised by the kind of counter-culture and the arts scene here is alive and well. It’s vibrant, said Drew Johnson, a local artist
Those who have helped organize the event say you should come out and see what the art crawl has to offer.
“Well because these are your neighbors. They are part of the community. And they want to be able to see you, see your original art, you’re not going to find this anywhere else. So this is just wonderful. Plus, you get to see your neighbors, maybe you haven’t seen your neighbors in a long time. Come on out, it will be a great event,” said Gayle Berardi, a local artist.
The arts crawl will take place from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday. All of the crawl’s eight locations are less than 5 miles total so those crawling are encouraged to walk, bike and scooter. The local artists want to thank PikeRide, Stellina Pizza, the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region for making this crawl possible.
At the end of the crawl, people will be able to enjoy a happy hour at Stellina Pizza, followed by a coffee at Switchbacks Coffee Roasters.
I had a sneak peek at the art and there’s a variety of pieces that are truly one of a kind. In my opinion, the crawl would be a nice opportunity to find a unique holiday gift for your loved ones.
For more information on the crawl and for a map of the event, visit here.
