The Oak Park Arts District galleries are open for special events from 6:00 – 10:00pm every Third Friday of the month.  Enjoy dinner in the district and stroll the galleries taking in the artwork of the gallery owners and their guest artists.

Shop for fine art or one of a kind gifts at Gallery Pink, Flavor City Studios, Dancing Krow, Art Gecko and Harrison Works, all located between Lombard & Austin.  Many of our unique boutiques keep late hours on Third Friday evenings as well.

If you’re looking to create your own work of art,  stop in to Bead in Hand or Creative Changes Studio for a scheduled workshop.

For neighborhood ambiance, you can count on the Eastgate Cafe, the Buzz Cafe and Trattoria 225.  Enjoy a drink and live music most Fridays at the Eastgate Cafe and the Buzz Cafe.

May 17th’s  Third Friday Gallery Walk kicked off our What’s Blooming on Harrison Festival.  Here are some of the highlights…

Friday evening, Dancing Krow Studio & Third Friday Gallery is pleased to be joined by art students from Concordia University, Chicago. The students will display paintings, drawings and photographs alongside the Third Friday Gallery artists as they celebrate spring and creativity in salon-style with tea and lots of art to look at and purchase from floor to ceiling!

Crack open your creativity at our Process Painting Open Studio.  Explore and play with rich colors in an environment of safety and non-judgment, where your creative freedom will be nurtured and encouraged.  No experience required, just curiosity.  All supplies provided.

Bead in Hand, 145 Harrison Street

Bead in Hand, a full-service jewelry design shop, will have a $5 all-ages drop-in workshop both Friday night and Saturday. You and your family can make either a wind chime using recycled cds and old keys or a jangle bracelet with memory wire, rubber tubing, beads and bells.

The Buzz Cafe, 905 S. Lombard Street

Looking to sit down with friends at a single evening-long event? Try Buzz After Hours .  On Friday night at 7:00pm settle in for a delicious prix fixe dinner at Buzz Cafe. From 8:00 – 10:00pm join host Al DeGenova for Jazz/R&B vocalist and musician Sarah MarieYoung and performance poet extraordinaire Charlie Rossiter.   For reservations (708)660-0894

Intuit Dance, 237 Harrison

Be a wallflower or shake it Friday evening as INTUIT hosts a full line up of classes. Stop in and check out TAP class from 7:00 – 8:00pm.

Val’s Halla, 239 Harrison 

Stroll to Val’s halla for Oak Park musicologist David Patterson’s lecture “Beethoven — God or Monster?: Frank Lloyd Wright versus John Cage.” More than a century after his death, Beethoven was still a powerful figure who could inspire or repel, depending on one’s artistic leanings. To architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Beethoven was a hero, one of the “greatest architects” he knew of. To composer John Cage, he was nothing more than “a roll of toilet paper.” Equally extreme in either direction, both Wright and Cage frequently used Beethoven to prove their own points, and neither one had a problem with twisting the real image of Beethoven into any shape that might help their cause. 7:00pm.