Keene Pride Art Crawl kicks off June 12

KEENE — Returning for its second year with an expanded lineup of venues and artists, the annual Keene Pride Art Crawl is set to transform downtown into a multi-week pop-up gallery. Running from June 12–27, the event invites the community to explore local shops and restaurants doubling as pop-up art galleries in a celebration of LGBTQ artists, community, and creativity. "One thing I found very interesting," said David Morrill, chair of Pride Art Crawl Sub-Committee of Keene Human Rights Committee, "A couple venues actually reached out to us to ask if they could participate as a venue. That was really helpful." The art crawl features 12 artists at eight different venues in downtown Keene. It starts on Friday, June 12, with a party at Brewbaker's starting at 6 p.m. The party will feature music and a speech by archaeologist and activist Gail Golec. At 7:30 p.m. the crawl itself officially kicks off as attendees are encouraged to explore the participating downtown venues. One thing changed for the second annual event is the opening and closing parties will take place on separate days. Morrill said he thinks the schedule last year resulted in a long day and people got tired. The closing party will take place on Saturday, June 27, 7 p.m., at Madame Sherri's. The finale will feature an open stage drag show and open mic hosted by Miss Ginger Soulless, followed by a dance party with VJ Quincy. Organizers noted the closing event is for those 21 and older. "We're hoping that having our name out there and more attention around it, we'll have a bigger turnout for opening night. And by not having a closing party the same day as opening night, people show up for that too," Morrill said. Those who can't attend either party are still able to participate by visiting the pieces throughout the two-week event. Anybody who collects a code from each venue and posts a selfie, tagging the event's accounts, with their completed map will be entered into a raffle. Maps will be available at the opening event, participating venues and online at linktr.ee/PrideArtCrawl.Keene. The art featured this year includes photos by Bre Webster, oil paintings by Riley Adams, acrylic paintings by Elliot Lee, and oil paintings by Eric Stanway, among others. Community support proved to be essential. Morrill said, given construction work downtown this year, the committee considered holding the art crawl in another part of town, excitement from businesses. "It was especially important to those downtown businesses to have just one more thing to attract people," he said.