Art Walk scales back indoors

    Murphy – The Valley River Arts Guild was finally ready to bring back Art Walk on Friday night, but the continuation of Gov. Roy Cooper’s Phase 2 and Mayor Rick Ramsey’s desire to follow it put a snag in the plans.
    “It will be a downsized Art Walk,” organizer Tim Ford said.
    Ramsey expressed his concerns last week to Ford in a conversation about the event. He said the state mandates that gatherings be 25 people or less and that people should be wearing face coverings.
    “I can’t put my police officers monitoring outside gatherings right now,” Ramsey said. “It can’t be an Art Walk as usual.. To have an Art Walk that has limitations on it is the best recommendation I could give.”
    The compromise was to bring the event indoors to the sponsoring businesses.
    “Everyone who’s a proprietor is going to have to monitor this,” Ramsey said.
    The only artist still scheduled to be at the event is “Dr. Paul” Constantine, who will be performing inside the Murphy Art Center on Valley River Avenue downtown instead of outside in the square. Ford didn’t think any of the 20-25 artists originally committed were coming to set up inside businesses.
    While business owners said they would stay open, some were leery of bringing artists indoors when outdoors is safer for gatherings.
    “It’s very disappointing, but we’re trying to make the best of it,” Ford said. “People should still come downtown. … Some of this is about supporting the downtown merchants.”
    Art Walk is typically held from 5-8 p.m. on the first Friday of each month from May through December. Ramsey called this month’s Art Walk a test, and he hopes the usual Art Walk with artists lining the downtown streets can return in August.