The First Saturday Art Crawl celebrated its 10th anniversary in downtown Nashville.
The monthly event has been a collaboration between dozens of art galleries along 5th Avenue near Church Street. The galleries opened their doors, admission free, to showcase local and world-renowned artists Saturday night.
Anne Brown of The Arts Company helped start the art crawl about ten years after she opened her gallery.
"There were no people after 5 p.m.," Brown told NewsChannel 5. "Nothing like this existed twenty years ago."
The event has normally seen an attendance between 1,000 to 2,000 people. It has continually grown throughout the years thanks to the hard work of the gallery owners.
Brown teamed up with The Rymer Gallery and Tinney Contemporary to help improve the local art scene ten years ago. The owners would meet once a week to figure out how to improve the art crawl.
"Our goal was originally for Nashvillians to purchase contemporary art without traveling outside the city," Jeff Rymer of The Rymer Gallery said. "We just realized that if we worked together that we would lift each other up much more effectively."
The current art scene has been a reflection of Nashville's growth. Despite Nashville being known as 'Music City,' gallery owners said visual art has been making a name for itself.
"We're a city, but feels like a small town," Brown added. "All of downtown has become an arts district."
"We work with developers, designers and architects so as the city continues to grow, then we all benefit from it," Rymer said.
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