The First Friday Art Walk has been a tradition in the Richmond arts community for most of the past decade. Along with the intention to spread awareness and participation in the Richmond art scene, one of its original goals was to help revitalize Richmond and bring business and tourism back to the downtown area. Its steady growth over the last eight years has made First Friday a Richmond success story, and has built the event into one of the pillars of the vibrant cultural scene that is RVA.
In some ways, the recent troubles that have plagued First Friday are unintended side effects of its own success. The event’s continued growth was bound to eventually create interest even outside its target demographic. However, the tensions that have arisen as new faces have appeared at recent events are an unfortunate reflection of a problem that is much bigger than the First Friday Art Walk, and point to an ongoing problem in our city.
The First Friday Art Walk has been a tradition in the Richmond arts community for most of the past decade. Along with the intention to spread awareness and participation in the Richmond art scene, one of its original goals was to help revitalize Richmond and bring business and tourism back to the downtown area. Its steady growth over the last eight years has made First Friday a Richmond success story, and has built the event into one of the pillars of the vibrant cultural scene that is RVA.
In some ways, the recent troubles that have plagued First Friday are unintended side effects of its own success. The event’s continued growth was bound to eventually create interest even outside its target demographic. However, the tensions that have arisen as new faces have appeared at recent events are an unfortunate reflection of a problem that is much bigger than the First Friday Art Walk, and point to an ongoing problem in our city.
Richmond’s culture has been divided for a long time, and sadly, that division has all too often been drawn along racial lines. When events in this city are seen as being either for the black community or the white community, but not both, we have a problem. The current situation with First Friday is an obvious example of the problem that we as a city must face. Management of the problem must improve over the course of the next few months. Increased law enforcement presence alone is not sufficient to curtail the chaotic incidents that are taking place.
We here at RVA Magazine do not wish to suggest that we have all the answers. Indeed, we feel that the only way to truly come up with satisfactory answers to the current problem is for city officials, leaders from the black and white communities, representatives from galleries and other businesses that participate in the event, and concerned citizens of Richmond to gather together and have a frank discussion about the future of our city. We have a wonderful artistic and musical community within this city, and recent initiatives taken by local government officials and community leaders have been geared towards spotlighting our local culture. Until we find a way to bring our racially divided culture together, though, we will be unable to progress in our goal to be known as one of the great cultural centers of this region.
The First Friday Art Walk is an important event, both to the art community and the city as a whole. It should not be allowed to wither and die due to a few months of troublesome incidents. Leadership is needed in order to solve this problem, restore confidence, and move forward with our cultural goals. We at RVA hope to see some decisive actions on the part of our government and community leaders in the near future in order to save First Friday and to help our city’s cultural community reach its full potential.
