4th of July Chalk Art Festival, Artwork by Karen Bubb

After a long, hot holiday of perfecting the art of the burger flip/beer sip while simultaneously reapplying sunscreen and making sure the embers from the Sparkling Glories didn’t land in a pile of dry weeds, downtown art galleries provided air-conditioned refuge from the heat for First Thursday.  At the Boise Art Museum, Nick Cave’s explosively colorful exhibit, Meet Me at the Center of the Earth, was enlivened by Ballet Idaho.  The dancers booty bounced and brisé volé’d with equal grace.  The exhibit runs through November 4^th, which means there’s still plenty of time left to catch a performance (click here for dates and times) or an elusive sighting.

In the Northrup Building, AiR artist and recent interviewee Theresa Burkes invited visitors to create their own shredded art, modeled after the style of her Rebirth series.  Not only was it fun, it was therapeutic.  One participant commented that after a stressful workweek, it was nice to just sit, draw, shred, paste, and give his left-brain a rest. Meanwhile, downstairs in the Lisk Gallery, featured artist Matt Grover’s kinetic sculptures were literally waving, jabbing, and swimming amongst Mark Lisk’s photographic landscapes and Jerri Lisk and Carl Rowe’s brushstroke equivalents.  Over at The Crux, photographer Christina Birkinbine’s Treefort Music Fest snapshots, printed on aluminum, nearly brought the music back to life by the way they popped off the metal.

Although it is a great excuse to throw on your art hat, First Thursday isn’t the only time you can appreciate and support Boise’s arts community.  While there may not be free wine tastings or snacks during regular business hours, a certain something else will be missing too, and it will be a welcome absence – crowds.  Pop into the Basement Gallery or Visual Arts Collective on your lunch break.  This month, check out Art Source Gallery’s Annual National Juried Exhibition before an early dinner downtown and get home in time to lovingly tuck the kids into bed.  Take a few minutes longer on your coffee break and look at the walls.  Lead yourself on a tour of Boise’s newest traffic box art, or all of them for an art-enhanced workout.  A Google Maps search for “art gallery Boise” brings up about 480 results.  While all the results may not be legitimate, chances are high that there is a genuine art purveyor just around the corner, awaiting your gracious patronage.  Go see.