We-Were-Here-First Fridays

Mayor Gordon may have declared last November 10 “Alwun House Day,” but for locals looking for offbeat and sometimes off-putting art, it’s been Alwun Day for decades.

The folks over at Alwun House -- which opened in 1971 and is now in its 36th year of unveiling works old and new by local and national artists -- are reminding art fans that while First Fridays and the Roosevelt Row and Grand Avenue arts scenes are hotter than ever, Alwun was here first.

The space’s new “Garfield Arts Renascence (Rebirth)” show features work by members of the Garfield Neighborhood Artists group, among them painters Brian Boner and Karolina Sussland. The collective, which also includes Stephanie Carrico, Francis Ciochon, Dr. Eugene Grigsby, Will Hatch, Christina Ramirez, Peter Kuttner, and Michael Lundgren, includes artists who produced work before the downtown arts scene was a burgeoning business.