First Friday May

I was unable to catch May's edition of First Friday and only saw the tail end of the festivities coming back into town. I did however glance over a few of the galleries that night and was very bummed that I missed this particular First Friday. I think this is because acedemia as a whole was represented so well this month which was very exciting to me. Not only the graduate students and seniors affiliated with VCU, but also an exhibition from the art department at a local high school. It was very refreshing to see the less commercial art represented on such a night. I think this really reinforced my conviction to make art at this stage in my academic career, because the end result and "payoff" was so clearly represented.
The only gallery I had time to go into was the one containing the VCU PhotoSeniors' work. I loved seeing these pieces in a gallery setting because I could view them in a way in which I couldn't get a feel for while they were hanging behind the glass in Pollack. For example, Will Connally's work was hanging in Pollack and he also gave a very insightful lecture and presentation in one of my classes recently, however, seeing his work hung professionally in a gallery allowed me to interact with on a more profound level then seeing it in a Powerpoint.