Strolling Through Old City for Philly’s Famous First Friday Artsy Fartsy Fun

Story, photos by Jill Beckel

If you haven’t heard about First Friday yet, you’re missing a fun (mostly free) night out. The event takes place the first Friday night of every month from 5 – 9 p.m. throughout Old City whether rain or shine. Visitors stroll through Old City checking out local art galleries, street vendors and more. Most of the participating art galleries are between Front and 3rd streets and Market and Vine streets.

At this particular First Friday in November, we checked out a fundraiser for The Eric Zempol Memorial Fund at Soiree Gallery located on 3rd Street. With a $20 entrance fee, there were drinks, snacks, music and mingling as visitors checked out artwork by Grey Cremer. Grey Cremer is a local artist who was also good friends with Eric Zempol. He knew Eric from going to school at Drexel. They were in the same fraternity, a group of “misfit toys” as Grey put it. Grey noted that Eric was not the type of person who would have wanted a sad memorial service, so a party was thrown at Drexel (where he was also a member of the faculty) in his honor and a lounge was also dedicated to him. Grey normally paints or works in graphic design, but to honor his friend, he turned Facebook sketches he had done of his friends into real black and white sketches. Five of these vivid pieces were featured throughout the event. All of the proceeds from the art that was sold went to benefit the Drexel design department.

Another stop of the night was the “Reflections” exhibit by Rodger LaPelle Galleries. It had a wide variety of unique paintings including scenes of Philly, people, fruit and more. Everyone stopped in to take a peak and compare their thoughts. We enjoyed the extremely detailed and cute owl sketches the best.

When the next month rolls around, be sure to mark your calendar for First Friday!