There are two kinds of attendees at downtown’s monthly First Saturday Art Crawl. The vast majority of onlookers are artists and art lovers, attracted by the promise of new exhibitions in the 20 galleries lining the Arcade and Broadway and a lurid use of the word “mingle.” Then there’s the rest of us. Look, we like art. Some of our best friends are artists. We just happen to like free drinking more.
We figure that, if you know how to play it, you can reach the end of the art crawl with a satisfying buzz. Think of it like a scavenger hunt, but instead of trying to find a Garth Brooks lookalike on Broadway, you’re trying to booze it up. Ain’t nothing wrong with that (alright, there are a few things wrong with that, but we choose to ignore it). We decided to test our theory on September 4. Let’s just call it a success.
- Rymer Gallery – You basically have two options for how to start off an art crawl drinking excursion. You can work your way inward from the Broadway galleries—Estel, Tennessee Art League, International Art Gallery—or you could just get straight to the good stuff. The Rymer Gallery is your home base for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they consistently show the best stuff if you’re a fan of off-kilter pop art. A sculpture of Barack Obama made out of crayons? BAM. A deer made out of scaffold jacks? No problem! Blood preserved on plexiglass? Creepy, but totally there (and kinda cool looking)! So, they’ve got that going for them. But more importantly, they also usually have the best drinks. On that particular warm September evening, they were churning out frozen margaritas. Frozen margaritas! But that kind of thing goes quick, so you’re going to want to get in on it before the crowds descend upon the drink table, unless you’re into lukewarm margarita juice. In the winter months, they sometimes break out the warm boozy cider and you’ll never want to leave.
- Twist Gallery – From Rymer, we went through the Arcade and upstairs to Twist, which has become Rymer’s partner in weirdness. We’re talking a small child playing drums beneath a suspended hamburger while men in Mexican wrestling masks tattoo people next door. Comparatively, their offerings were pretty weak; Low key art and Dixie cups with some kind of blue Kool-Aid concoction in it. We still sampled both varieties, clinging to a hope that one would possibly be spiked, but there was no such luck. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that most galleries offer you tepid wine in tiny cups. Not every place is going to ply you with extravagant drinks, which means you’re going to need to pay attention if you’re going to be effective with your time.
- Animal Art Photography: Christian Sperka – Speaking of paying attention, it was hard not to notice the fact that people were wandering around with what looked like beer from a tap. We didn’t think much of it until we discovered a keg of Yeungling disguised with a leopard print shawl in the corner of Christian Sperka’s gallery of safari photos. Jackpot. We skipped the wine and cheese plate in favor of the beer, sponsored by the Nashville Zoo’s Animal Art Auction (as in art by elephants, not paintings of elephants). Did we mention that we were served beer by real live Zoo Keepers? Because it happened.
- “O” Gallery – Another reliable source of free drinks is around the bend a bit in “O” Gallery, tucked away in the back corner of the gallery. The bartender was serving up a few different canned beers, including PBR and Miller High Life (our poisons of choice), and wine. This should go without saying but TIP THE BARTENDER. If you’ve followed our path, you’ve saved enough money that you can stand to toss a few bucks into the tip jar. Don’t be that guy who doesn’t tip.
The remaining galleries were offering your typical art crawl selections of wine in increasingly smaller cups. Blend was the most generous with their cup size and lack of wine-bottle supervision, while others… not so much.
The crawl closes down at 9 p.m., which gives you three hours of drinking if you get there on time at 6 p.m. You can do it, we believe in you. And when you’re done with that, you can soak up that booze tempest in your stomach by ordering way too much food at San Antonio Taco Company on Commerce and 2nd.
// Photo by Lance Conzett. It’s a PBRt crawl! Get it? Get it? Oh, whatever.
There are two kinds of attendees at downtown’s monthly First Saturday Art Crawl. The vast majority of onlookers are artists and art lovers, attracted by the promise of new exhibitions in the 20 galleries lining the Arcade and Broadway and a lurid use of the word “mingle.” Then there’s the rest of us. Look, we like art. Some of our best friends are artists. We just happen to like free drinking more.
We figure that, if you know how to play it, you can reach the end of the art crawl with a satisfying buzz. Think of it like a scavenger hunt, but instead of trying to find a Garth Brooks lookalike on Broadway, you’re trying to booze it up. Ain’t nothing wrong with that (alright, there are a few things wrong with that, but we choose to ignore it). We decided to test our theory on September 4. Let’s just call it a success.
Rymer Gallery – You basically have two options for how to start off an art crawl drinking excursion. You can work your way inward from the Broadway galleries—Estel, Tennessee Art League, International Art Gallery—or you could just get straight to the good stuff. The Rymer Gallery is your home base for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they consistently show the best stuff if you’re a fan of pop art. A sculpture of Barack Obama made out of crayons? BAM. A deer made out of scaffold jacks? No problem! Blood preserved on plexiglass? Creepy, but totally there (and kinda cool looking)!
So, they’ve got that going for them. But more importantly, they also usually have the best drinks. On that particular warm September afternoon, they were churning out frozen margaritas. Frozen margaritas! But that kind of thing goes quick, so you’re going to want to get in on it before the crowds descend upon the drink table. In the winter months, they sometimes break out the warm boozy cider and you’ll never want to leave.
Twist Gallery – From Rymer, we went through the Arcade and upstairs to Twist, which has become Rymer’s partner in weirdness. We’re talking a small child playing drums beneath a suspended hamburger while men in Mexican wrestling masks tattoo people next door. Comparatively, their offerings were pretty weak; Low key art and Dixie cups with some kind of blue Kool-Aid concoction in it. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that most galleries offer you tepid wine in tiny cups. Not every place is going to ply you with extravagant drinks, which means you’re going to need to pay attention if you’re going to be effective with your time.
Animal Art Photography: Christian Sperka – Speaking of paying attention, it was hard not to notice the fact that people were wandering around with what looked like beer from a tap. We didn’t think much of it until we discovered a keg of Yeungling disguised with a leopard print shawl in the corner of Christian Sperka’s gallery of safari photos. Jackpot! We skipped the wine and cheese plate in favor of the beer, sponsored by the Nashville Zoo’s Animal Art Auction (as in art by elephants, not paintings of elephants).
“O” Gallery – Another reliable source of free drinks is around the bend a bit in “O” Gallery, tucked away in the back corner of the gallery. The bartender was serving up a few different canned beers, including PBR and Miller High Life (our poisons of choice), and wine. This should go without saying but TIP THE BARTENDER. If you’ve followed our path, you’ve saved enough money that you can stand to toss a few bucks into the tip jar. Don’t be that guy who doesn’t tip.
The remaining galleries were offering your typical art crawl selections of wine in increasingly smaller cups. Blend was the most generous, while others… not so much.
The crawl closes down at 9 p.m., which gives you three hours of drinking if you get there on time at 6 p.m. You can do it, we believe in you.
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