First Friday and the Beach Book

October 1^st heralded in the First Friday event in downtown Manteo and my itinerary planning made sure I was there for the occasion. Its an American phenomenon, one I have witnessed in many towns and cities across the States. In essence its a community event, an excuse to come out into the streets and gallery spaces, to meet people, eat, drink and listen to live music. All for free.

Dare County Arts Council co-ordinate Manteo's First Friday programme and it runs annually on the first of the month from April to December. Its also a very family friendly event and there are activities for kids to keep both them and Mom and Dad happy. I learnt that the town of Manteo pay for the bands and on this occasion there were three different ones playing – 2 solo artistes in the vicinity of the Arts Council building (one on the front porch and one in the back yard) and a duo up the road in front of one of the cafes.

There were 2 arts openings at the arts council space – one to celebrate the 2010 Beach Book prize and another show called Ben2, by 2 artists called Ben! Dave and I were invited to judge this year's Beach Book prize, which was quite an honour and we did this in the morning as Gallery Director Fay had already hung the show the afternoon before. The Beach Book is a phone directory covering the Outer Banks area and each year a competition is run to select a winner whose artwork becomes the front cover. There are also 3 merits awarded, the first of which becomes an image for a calendar. It was quite a job to make a selection as there was a variety of styles and the task was difficult as we had to visualise the image on the front of the phone book, so it had to work in that context – without a frame, textureless and printed. In the end we selected a painting by Katy Caroline; it was a view of a beachside houses and garden from someone swinging on a hammock and so was at a jaunty angle. We had no knowledge of the history of this prize, or of the artists who submitted work but it turned out that Katy Caroline was 'people's choice' winner last year and is also an artist who is really beginning to make her mark locally and as someone put it is 'on a roll' She is also featured in this month's 'Our State' magazine – so unwittingly we made the right choice and a very popular winner!

First Friday was busy with folks at the Arts Council galleries and in their back yard, where the bar, music and kids stuff was. There was a lovely atmosphere with everyone happy and wandering about at their leisure. From the promotional posters I saw, it wasn't the best one as in the Summer months there are costumed interpreters, a climbing wall, more artists selling their wares on the streets – but the weather has been unkind recently as the September First Friday was called off due to the hurricane and this one didn't fare much better as the main street in town was flooded and made access difficult. In fact people were calling Laura in the afternoon to check it was all on and she was in a position to make the decision and say yes. But being there and taking part was great and informative and gave me some ideas for what Bideford could do if we were to start up a First Friday programme in 2011, as Bideford Bay Creatives have talked about doing during this year.