Have you ever had the experience where you are hungry for so many hours or days that when you finally eat something, it's the best food ever? Even something as simple as fast food becomes overwhelmingly delicious after a prolonged period of hunger.
That's pretty much how I feel about First Friday in Las Vegas. It's art in Vegas and we don't have enough. There's very little public art in this town, but on the first Friday of the month all of a sudden downtown is caught in a flash flood of art, artists and general creative types. The streets have art and the homes that you thought were boarded up open their doors and turn out to be galleries. And it is glorious to let the rushing waves of art sweep you along after so much time in the empty desert.
Even though I attend almost every First Friday in Vegas, I can't justify a ranking above three stars. The quality of the artwork is severely lacking in some galleries. And some artists seem to have hung all their work without editing which pieces should be displayed and which ones just aren't good enough. While it's amazing to see this rush of art in Vegas, it's depressing that the art isn't better in a city this big. There are some real gems here and there (Brett Wesley Gallery puts together a solid show each month and there's usually at least one solid show in the Arts Factory), but overall most of the art sits at high school or college freshman level of quality.
Don't get me wrong, I'm pro-creativity and pro-creation. We need art. We need more art. We need an artists community. First Friday is a solid first step. But for an area with an estimated population of 1 million in 2010, the quality of the pieces should be a lot better.