How to foster lively nightlife

Hannah Stubee .
Jun 20, 2019
2 min read

During the summer, it's hard to get people in the gallery for show openings. People are either traveling or drawn away by the free concert series that Downtown Roseville puts on right down the street.

I gotta admit, I'm not salty about the concerts. I went with my boyfriend after the reception, and I gotta say, it was super fun. The Vernon Street town square is really the perfect spot for a community gathering. They have a full fledged stage, food trucks, plenty of grass for picnic blankets, and play area fountains for the kids to run around in on hot summer nights. And any event that helps to grow the emerging downtown nightlife scene helps us all. Free events mean more people in the community are reached, more people on the streets means more safety, and sometimes... a rock and roll concert right next to a rock and roll art exhibit means that we get way more traffic in the gallery than usual. This third Saturday, over 250 people attended. (That might even be a record breaker!)

The Blue Line has been really spot on with the themes of their shows lately. The Rock Show was a smart move not only because of the concert series nearby, but also because a lot of our members are of the age to have seen rock and roll at the peak of its popularity. The other week we had a group of ladies who begged us to lead a Tour Talk Create event for them (which are normally only for school groups). They were SO excited to see paintings of artists they grew up with and photos from concerts they had witnessed firsthand. We're also going to have the Car Show (which will pair well with the Downtown Tuesday Nights car showcase) as well as a timely Politically Charged show during the 2020 elections. In order to survive, a gallery must understand its context - audience and relevancy is of the utmost importance.

I think it also helped that we had a lot of activities to promote. We had five artist lectures (which again, might be a record number for us considering we normally only have three), special rock and roll themed mixed drinks (and a bartender with a beret to match), and of course, live music from the School of Rock (it's a music school nearby, not the real one unfortunately), and an acoustic guitarist.

I made a MILLION instagram story posts, but of course I forgot to save them and they disappear after 24 hours, so in place of photos of the actual opening, here are some rock and roll gifs and a picture of me and Basil enjoying the Concert in the Square. You'll just have to imagine the details.