Weather leaves second art walk a ghost town

The second After Hours Art Walk at College Hill featured the theme “Day of the Dead.” Due to inclement weather, all of the displays and activities were moved indoors for the evening.

College Hill held its second After Hours Art Walk Nov. 1. The “Day of the Dead” themed event invited guests to walk through the streets in their favorite costumes and visit local vendors.

Businesses from the College Hill area decided to repeat their art walk one more time before the year ended. The art walk was a collaboration between the College Hill Lofts and local businesses such as PT’s Coffee, The Burger Stand and Boca Café. The College Hill apartments offered free mugs and chalk for guests to draw around the blocks.

The art exhibits were stationed near The Burger Stand and Boca Café. The collections ranged from sculptures, jewelry, paintings and ceramics. The exhibits displayed art collections from the Topeka area. Alex Olson, an art major at Washburn University, was one of the spectators.

“It’s kind of a relief that there’s more of an art scene and people are getting excited about it and it is closer to campus,” said Olson.

The galleries also had decoration tables laid with paper masks. Children were given an opportunity to display their creative talents by painting the masks.

Eateries like The Burger Stand greeted guests throughout the night. The Burger Stand hosted live music performances at the backside of the restaurant to a packed room. Alex Sonnich, bartender, served a busy restaurant throughout the night.

“We started doing this big after hours party after the art walk,” said Sonnich.

Ever since the first College Hill art walk, the restaurant provided drink specials and kept their kitchen opened past 11 p.m.

A drum circle performed outside of the Boca Café. The drum circle accompanied the fire juggling performance adjacent to the art exhibits. Strings attached to balls of fire spun through the air to the beat of the drums.

There were setbacks to the art walk, however. The art walk was met with opposition from pouring rain. The last art walk had vendors outlined throughout the blocks but that was not the case this past weekend.

The downpour slowed down the traffic of people traveling through the College Hill area. Two hours into the event, the streets were barren as vendors found comfort in the indoors of the art gallery exhibits. The rain proved to be a major factor in the amount of people that came to the walk compared to the last walk.

More information about future art walks can be found at the Lofts at College Hill.