Art Hop Downtown Fresno

I was brought here by my friend and fellow Unilocaler Umar R and I am grateful he did so. Come to the heart of downtown Fresno in winter after dark for a mostly outdoor event? … sure !
I admit I was slightly nervous with the area at night. There is a lot of walking between galleries and a number of dark and quite streets but what you get in return is a great art experience, reminiscent of my times in Harlem, NY. Having my trusty guide was keeping us sane. Were arrived on the late side but managed to go to 4 galleries. There is vast variety of local art, all the way from the classic gallery to gothic to neo-​expressionism to junk art and photo-​realism. It was a great experience and you meet everyone from all walks of life. It is definitely an event to go with a group of friends who are open to experiencing something new. Maybe not the best place to bring your parents… some galleries welcome you the strong scent of THC and other smoked botanicals upon walking in, if you catch my drift. I however will be back

I have to confess something: when I hear the word art in my younger years (way before college), it is usually followed by a long and wide yawn, because lets face it, art is normally boring to people who aren’t artist themselves or art enthusiast.
However, Art Hop is different, its not just about art appreciation, its about exploring the beautiful buildings of downtown Fresno, meeting new people (some good-​looking), eating foods (food trucks), listening to live music and taking a nice stroll (great exercise), its also an amazing time spent with friends and your love ones, the prefect hangout or date plan, I know I have personally made memories here that I can still picture to this day.
How art hop works is that you are free to visit all the opened galleries in downtown Fresno, it literally means you get to hop from one art gallery to the other. There is a map available to be downloaded on the fresno art council website, which shows the location of every gallery that you could hop into, I highly recommend you getting one printed, I know it had helped me. There is plenty of free street parking all over downtown too.
Art Hop is a FREE event, which occurs every 1^st and 3^rd Thursday of each month, starting as early as 5pm and lasting to 8pm. It’s a perfect blend of older pretentious crowds analyzing abstract art, younger instagramming hipsters, and friendly, weird, and crazy bums, yet I can safely say this event is safe and there hasn’t been an issue in the past.
There was a good amount of galleries that was open that each have their own flavor to offer, my favorite was the 1821 gallery because the building was simply stunning and well restored, plus the artist had such huge rooms to feature their art. I usually make it through 5 – 8 galleries a night. I start at the 1821 gallery than move on to art house, idea works, then to broadway studios, then k-​jewl and a few others. You get the idea, its an extensive amount of hoping.
There is a substantial amount of places to grab a bite on the go, mostly food trucks like taco trucks. But also small little restaurants like Take 3 burger, peeves and raizana opens late on art hop nights.
Its the prefect place for you to bring people from out of town to appreciate the beauty of Fresno and its downtown while having fun and getting a good walk.