What a great evening! Even the thunderstorm that rolled through briefly could not dampen everyone’s enthusiasm. Lots of pictures on our Facebook page (click the icon to the right to view) and good coverage in the River Country Journal article, Class reunions, Art & Music Hop staged in Downtown TR by Bruce Snook.

Local artists and musicians along with those from nearby areas met the public, displayed their work and performed their music in downtown stores and the Carnegie Center for the Arts. The scene was enhanced by the Three Rivers High School 1960s classes reunion and a display of candy-colored creampuff cars in the parking lot behind downtown.

The Three Rivers Art Hop was presented by the Three Rivers Downtown Merchants Group.

Three Rivers Artists Guild members displayed their locally created work at the Carnegie Center (Kathy Bingaman, polymer and glass jewelry), Pisanos Bar and Grill (Christi Misner, acrylic and oil paintings), Second Wind Furniture (Mary Powers, metalsmith jewelry), UniQ (Carol Dugan, photography), Express Nutrition Too (Judi Brook, fiber arts and Brian Brook, sculpture), World Fare (Donna Rathert, acrylic paintings), The Golden Finch Framing and Gallery (Ruth Scott, copper and sea glass jewelry) and Fabrications (Becky Hackenberg, photography.) Also notable were the wood mosaic animal portraits by Vicksburg artist Kevin Johnson at Downtown Dog, and the fine art pottery of Constantine ceramicist Mark Goetzler at Love Your Mother. Dedicated Sports hosted wire sculpture by Ginny Wilson and strung bead jewelry by Lisa Devine.

Food and drink were provided at each stop on the Art Hop, topped by a spectacular artistic display of hors d’oeuvres presented by chef Thom Britton at UniQ Jewelry. Musicians included Art DeMulder, keyboards and guitar at Second Wind furniture; a guitar, vocal and cello group at World Fare; 60’s DJ “Wacky Wayne” at Pub 21; “Smokestack and the Foothill Fury” band at the Riviera Theater; Nick Farmer on keyboards at Main Street Cafe; violin Celtic music with Catelyn Seely and Roxanne Ewert at Lowry’s Books; the Three Rivers Silver Triad Flute Club at Centsible Treasures; Ben Nofsinger on keyboards at the Golden Finch; and cellist John Mark Wenger at the Carnegie Center for the Arts, where visitors could enjoy the ongoing shows as well as the Art Hop.

The Three Rivers Downtown Merchants Group will sponsor an Art Hop this coming Friday, July 23, from 6pm to 9pm in historic downtown Three Rivers – come to Three Rivers and enjoy music, refreshments… and art on display in downtown stores! Meet the artists, there will be refreshments and music or art in each of the participating stores (marked by balloons out front) and the Carnegie Center for the Arts.

Three Rivers Artists Guild members and other artists will be showing their work. Guild participants scheduled in the July Three Rivers Art Hop will be:

• Second Wind Furniture, 3 North Main St. – Mary Powers, metalsmith turtles, amulets and Items of Meaning
• UniQ, 33 N Main St. – Carol Dugan, photography -”Surprised by Beauty”
• Express Nutrition Too, 35 N. Main St. - Judi Brook, fiber arts and llama fiber accessories, along with Brian Brook, found-metal sculpture
• World Fare, 37 N. Main St. – Donna Rathert, iconography, “Global Mothers” acrylics
• Carnegie Center for the Arts, 107 North Main St. – Kathy Bingaman, polymer and glass bead jewelry
• Paisano’s Bar and Grill, 16 North Main St. – Christi Misner, acrylic and oil paintings, drawings and etchings
• Golden Finch, 62 North Main St. – Ruth Scott, metalsmith and sea glass jewelry
• Fabrications, 56 North Main St. – Becky Hackenberg, photography and art cards

Music, food, and/or art will also be “happening” at lots of other downtown locations… Love Your Mother, Pub 21, Frisbee Golf, Lowry’s Books, Centsible Treasures, Downtown Dog… more!

For more information about the Three Rivers Art Hop contact organizer Douglas Mitchell at doug@uniqjewelry.com

Article about the Three Rivers Art Hop in the River Country Journal:
http://bit.ly/9MjJ1T and coverage in the Three Rivers Commercial-News, “Music and Art Hop will be Friday”. Wednesday, July 21, 2010 (may still be online at http://www.threeriversnews.com/articles/2010/07/22/news/local_news/doc4c46fbd6318db029991365.txt )

The new owners of the former Huss School building (1008 8th Street) have invited the public to the former school for a “Future Festival” this coming Saturday, July 24, from 8am-4pm. In addition to tours of the building and a giant rummage sale of school items, there will be other tables of local people with their own rummage to sell, musicians performing, and artists displaying their work.

To learn more, listen to the River Country Journal’s audio interview with Julie Keefer and an article, First annual Huss Future Festival to feature rummage sale, tours and art, by Bruce Snook. There was also a front page article in the Three Rivers Commercial-News which may still be available on the Commercial-News website, http://www.threeriversnews.com, if you missed it.

The Huss Future Festival 2010 webpage is at http://www.cultureisnotoptional.com/futurefest. Bake sale donations, volunteers and art vendors are still being accepted, contact the group at: http://www.cultureisnotoptional.com/connect/contact