n the first Friday of each month, restaurants, cafés, and galleries across Alaska feature new art from creatives. These First Friday events came to Alaska after starting in the ‘80s as a networking opportunity for young, Black professionals. The idea has expanded into a nationwide monthly meetup for both artists and businesses.

Erika Tripp grew up with First Fridays in Juneau. She works at her parents’ art gallery, Mt. Juneau Trading Post. The store has been open since 1967. She doesn’t recall exactly when the store joined the First Friday movement, but especially in the last ten or so years, Mt. Juneau Trading Post was hosting more and more. Until, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020.

“When we didn’t do First Fridays, we could kind of feel… as the employees, or, the owner’s daughters, we could kind of tell when we weren’t taking part in it,” Tripp says. “It was just such a drastically different kind of divide, almost, where people were looking for First Friday signs. They didn’t come in if we didn’t have one, or if we didn’t advertise it.”

First Friday caught on because it’s a rising tide that lifts everyone floating in it. For instance, Akela Space, an art gallery, studio, and community space at 320 West Sixth Avenue, just kitty-corner to the Anchorage Museum, benefits from that proximity. Gallery manager Meneka Thiru says First Friday brings out a lot of folks who come to the museum’s free admission Friday.

“One of the really great benefits of First Friday is it just brings people Downtown, so they are more likely to sort of happen upon things,” Thiru says. “We get people visiting our shows throughout the month, but the majority of the people who come, come on First Friday. First Friday is definitely, like, a big draw to downtown businesses.”

Glass artist Laurette Rose of Cold Rose Creations and Tiny Gallery in downtown Anchorage remembers when First Friday maps were organized through Anchorage Downtown Partnership. The member-supported nonprofit that manages the Downtown Improvement District had them printed in the Anchorage Press. When that weekly newspaper stopped printing, Anchorage Downtown Partnership continued to put out a map but charged businesses to be included. That format resulted in fewer places participating, so fewer patrons came out.

Thus, Rose began to assemble a map herself at the website Anchorage First Friday. Also branded as Destination Downtown, Rose regularly updates the website and social media channels with First Friday happenings, gallery shows, exhibitions, and workshops for the public.

“As a small business owner in downtown Anchorage, I thought it was important enough for First Fridays to continue that I started creating a map,” Rose says. “And to ensure more businesses participate, it was important to me that their inclusion on the map be free.”

She has shifted away from the effort being labeled as an “art walk.” Instead, she’s “aiming to make it more a celebration of the diverse Downtown businesses and getting people to come out and support Downtown,” Rose says.

One location that regularly participates in Rose’s maps is Stephan Fine Arts Gallery on Fifth Avenue, tucked inside the first floor of the Hotel Captain Cook. Anchorage-based artist Valerie Jaimes sells her original oil paintings there, and she began showing her work at the gallery in February of 2023.

“That month in particular, where it is my month, is always the month where I have the most sales. And then throughout the year there will be some here and there,” Jaimes says. “But having that highlighted wall is always really important for me.” Jaimes has had five solo shows of her own in the space.

“When it is First Friday, usually there will be, like, two or three different artists that are featured, and that’s when I get a main wall that’s dedicated only to my work,” she says. “I get the special event dedicated to me and the other featured artists. But throughout the rest of the year, my work is just mixed in with the curation.”

Jaimes is currently preparing for a First Friday show at Alaska Pacific University’s ConocoPhillips Gallery in August to September, and another show at Stephan Fine Arts Gallery in December.

Being with the gallery for more than three years, Jaimes says she has been able to evolve as an artist when she is curating her work for showings.

“I have been able to share my process with people in that way. And having an average of one to two shows per year, that’s been really special—that people have cared and come back and been a part of my journey as an artist,” Jaimes says. “I feel very supported through the opportunity to have First Friday, supported by the gallery itself and also by the people who obviously come in and see my work or buy my work.”

At Akela Space, Thiru was brought on recently to support First Friday events. She also supports artists and other programming the gallery wants to host.

Owner and co-founder Jovell Rennie opened Akela Space to art shows in April 2018, with a gallery in the front and a small photography studio in the back. In 2023, Akela Space expanded the photography studio and opened it to the public. Community members can rent the photography studio to work on projects, with hourly rentals and monthly memberships available. The photography studio rentals, as well as event rentals in the gallery, help support the space’s ability to maintain free and low-cost programming.

The space provides lighting equipment, for instance, so photographers can rent the space for a one-time fee or support the gallery through a membership, which allows for a personal-use studio key, unlimited rentals, and additional benefits. “If someone just needed to do one particular project, or they are not going to need it month to month, they could just rent it out for that,” Thiru says. “We also have people rent out the spaces for events. So we’ve had people just rent out the studio, just the gallery, or all three spaces, and the studio is split to two spaces… The gallery is hoping to be more of the sort of community space, like providing programming that is free to the public.”

In a world that’s increasingly online, Thiru says she wants to provide opportunities for people to interact in real life. Her position is grant-funded, which she says is truly special for being able to provide free programming for the community.

“Oftentimes, artists are selling their artwork, but you can come and look at it for free, and I think that is wonderful,” Thiru says. “We also try to have things like art club, which is a free, open to the public event. Folks can just bring their own projects and work on them in community with other people. So you’re not just alone working on your work, but you can also have that social aspect. If you want to see what other people are working on or meet people maybe you haven’t met before.”

Akela Space also has a newsletter in which it posts monthly updates about visiting artists and gallery happenings.

Mt. Juneau Trading Post has two locations, so when it hosts First Fridays, an artist can be featured at each spot. First Fridays are a big deal in Southeast, according to Tripp, because of the seasonal visitor economy.

“They have always kind of been a big deal in Juneau,” Tripp says. “We [recently] had [April] First Friday, and that is the last one before the season. So I would say it was notably busier, even just on the streets, because of First Friday.”

April was especially exciting because events on February 6 and March 6 were canceled due to record snowfall in the capital city. That cut into the off-season months when Mt. Juneau Trading Post typically hosts First Fridays. Juneau transforms by the end of April, when the first cruise ships of the season arrive, so May has an entirely different vibe.

The storefronts are “pretty packed,” so Tripp and employees remove items from Mt. Juneau Trading Post to make room for the artists’ work to be featured. Tripp says they pause First Fridays in the summer months, only because their stores get so packed with everyday traffic.

When tourists go away after the last port call in early October, shops bring back First Fridays to connect with the local clientele. “Sometimes it is a reminder of, ‘Oh, yeah, there is this store downtown,’ or, ‘Oh, I haven’t been downtown in ten years or something,’ ‘We didn’t know you guys were open on this side,’ that kind of thing,” Tripp says. “So it is really exciting to be able to both remind people here and shed some light on these newer artists, or these seasoned artists who are picking it back up.”

Every December, the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council and the Juneau Downtown Business Association host Gallery Walk, a holiday event that Tripp says is “by far the most insane First Friday of the entire year.”

Tripp says it is always exciting for residents and visitors to come in and learn about Native artists and their work, and it also reminds everybody to shop and support locally.

“I love First Friday. I think it is so fun,” Tripp adds. “We have been trying to highlight different local artists. A lot of them happen to be Native women, which is really cool, or women of color. We have had a few really cool Native beadwork artists, and then we had a ceramic artist—a local person in town—and that has been really cool.”

First Fridays are special for Jaimes because they allow her to connect directly with folks in the community.

Jaimes paints realistic landscapes that are often recognizable to locals and tourists alike. She says, “People will tell me their stories of, ‘Oh, I went to that place,’ and ‘I used to go there every summer with my dad or my grandpa,’ or, ‘I got engaged there,’ whatever. So those stories are really exciting to share.”

As a small business owner, the financial impact of First Fridays is major. “The opportunity to meet the artists is something that really excites people, and to be able to talk to them about what inspired them to make the piece,” says Jaimes. “I think that element of connection is what drives sales.” Jaimes says people often buy right away during First Friday events. Sometimes, folks will look at her work, think about it, and purchase it later in the month.

As a fellow Anchorage resident, Thiru says she loves to go to art shows every month. Afterward, she goes out for a drink or appetizers. She says it is a great way to frequent different businesses downtown.

“I really love First Friday, even just as a member of the public, because there are several different events going on downtown, it just makes it a little bit more festive,” Thiru says. “The more galleries that exist and do an event, the more that you can get to see Downtown. The really lovely thing about being able to walk around Downtown… you get to experience a lot of different shows. You get to see other people in your community coming and going.”