"The Catalyst Sessions" w/ Bill DeYoung: Brenda McMahon 10-1-20

After 17 years, Gulfport’s First Friday ArtWalk was getting a little stale, Brenda McMahon believed.

McMahon is a ceramics artist, and proprietor of the Brenda McMahon Gallery on Beach Boulevard. She is also head of the arts committee for the Gulfport Merchants Chamber, which organizes and implements the monthly event.

Thursday on The Catalyst Sessions, McMahon discussed the long road and numerous conversations that led to the new and improved First Friday ArtWalk, which returns to Gulfport – in person – today from 5 to 8 p.m.

Overhaul plans, she explained, had begun well before the pandemic put everything on hold.

“We really took a lot of time to work on the redesign of it. Gulfport was one of the first art walks in the region, in 1993, and it was unusual in its time. Now every city has an art walk.

“We felt the need to pull it back, re-define it, freshen it up, make it a little more contemporary – and then have a new kind of coming out party, so to speak. Where we show our new design.”

Changes include the separation into two distinct stroll-the-street events: The Friday art walks will be devoted to fine art, juried and themed every month, with the Third Saturday IndieFaire makers’ market including crafts and other items. #stetecatalyst #gulfport #TampaBay #RAdio #stpete #florida #floridaart