(Above: Don’t forget the City Hall Gallery at 500 E. 4th Ave., on the Willamette River in what used to be the Eugene Water and Electric Board headquarters. It’s featuring an exhibit by Native American artist Yvonne Stubbs; see alphabetical listing below for details.)
Edited by Randi Bjornstad
Here’s what’s happening at downtown Eugene’s First Friday ArtWalk on Sept. 5, 2025. All of the participants listed alphabetically below will be open from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., unless otherwise noted.
(And, as usual, a free Lane Transit District bus pass can help people get to and from the artwalk. Just go online to lanearts.org on the day of the event to get the code.
Participants
#instaballet (5th Street Market Alley) — Creation of a whole new dance, incorporating suggestions from the audience for professional dancers to perform. All ages welcome, no dance experience needed. Performance of the new dance performed at 8 p.m.
Allies, LLC (200 E. 11th Ave., Suite 130) — All-original artworks by member artists on display in the new art annex. Proceeds from sold works benefits the Allies Art Fund.
Art with Alejandro (5th Street Market Alley, Suite 104) — Artwork by Paisley Mae, exploring her own imaginary world of Planet Galexia, brought to life with vibrant color, human-alien forms, symbolism, and a wide range of mediums.
Bree’s Way Gift Shop (1231 Alder St.) — Watercolor and ink paintings by Anna Bousquet, honoring various mythic figures and deities in two-dimensional “altars, weaving together images steeped in ritual and focused on the Hermetic arts of Astrology, Alchemy and Magic.
Bumble Boutique (233 W. 5th Ave.) — Featuring local artist Candace Watson, working in acrylic, colored pencil, and pastels., focusing on realism, portraits of people, animals, and florals.
City Exhibitions (City Hall Gallery, 500 E. 4th Ave.) — Bloodlines: A Personal Journey Through Art, Memory, and Heritage by multidisciplinary artist Yvonne Stubbs, weaving her personal and ancestral narratives into a tribute to cultural identity and resilience, including untold histories of descendants of the Freedmen of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations and stories from Stubbs’ own family history and exploring the intersections of identity, displacement, and endurance across time. (Show also open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Feb. 6, 2025, with a special reception for the artist from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025.)
Cultural Currents (Hult Center Plaza, 6th and Willamette streets) — A’ppealing and Leaf Dance, two steel and reclaimed materials sculptures by artist Jenny Ellsworth, transforming discarded metal into unique works of art..
City of Eugene Urban Canvas Mural project:
- WJ Dog Park (between 5th and 6th avenues, near Washington Street) — Jump to the Moon, new murals by Esteban Camacho Steffensen celebrating dog and human relationships.
- 941 Willamette Alley — Radically Radiant by Wayde Love
- 957 Willamette Alley — Nature’s Child by Mural Mice Universal
Downtown Athletic Club (999 Willamette St.) — Special celebration in partnership with the Eugene Symphony, featuring live performance by a professional string quartet.
Flux Crystals (280 W. Broadway) — Works by Heather Sterling-Minder, combining real pressed flowers and original drawings that evoke enchanted dwellings and adornments for nature beings and spirits.
Moon Maiden Tattoo (275 W. 8th Ave.) — Paintings of whimsical worlds and surreal spirits by Eugene-based illustrator and artist Cassie Genc.
Midtown Arts Center (174 E. 16th Ave.) — Presented by the Museum of Techno Art: Past, Present and Future Relics, an eclectic mix of sculptures, assemblages, and graphic art revolving around industrial themes, reflecting on the history of human invention, retro-futurism, and imaginations of machines of the future.
Work by Adrienne Fritze-Aiden on display at The New Zone Gallery
The New Zone Gallery (110 E. 11th Ave.) — Opening reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., enhanced by beverages from Hop Valley Brewing and wine from Sundance Wine Cellars, plus live music and a show of eclectic mix of contemporary and traditional art created by New Zone members, plus three special exhibits of art on the walls through September:
- Journey by Patricia Sims, paintings interpreting natural forms, ancient symbols, and sites, combining various mediums to create complex patterns and surfaces, textural flows and the colors of sky, earth, stone deserts, rocky plateaus, and mountains.
- Scenes from a Marriage by Will Mitchell, examining the subtle tensions and quiet intimacies of partnership, revealing how love and power, support and control, occupy the same space.
- Empty & Meaningless: Shaping the Light Within, a participatory, reflective art experience by Adrienne Fritze blending original art with public participation, and exploring freedom, release, and reinvention. (Also includes Fritze’s signature Extreme Collage™ works, illustrated narratives, and an installation of participant-made Collaged Story Boxes from regional workshops, and Fritze’s interactive station, The Freedom Wall.)
One Wall Gallery at Epic Seconds (30 E. 11th Ave.) — A show called I am whole, We are whole, featuring paintings by Virginia Shepley and creations by Jenny Gray using thread and cloth to transform found and made objects. On display through Sept. 28.
Our 21st Century Renaissance, aka R21 (1245 Pearl St.) — Opening of R21’s new, permanent location, featuring a retrospective of work by its founding women artists.
Palace Coffee|Bakery (842 Pearl St.) — Sculptures, paper castings, and drawings by Marina Hajek and Melissa Santala, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.; exhibit runs through September.
Radiant Community Arts (110 E. 11th Ave., Suite C) — Love Letters to the World, an exhibit of hundreds of letters from people expressing love to anything and anyone around the world, plus an opportunity to create your own. Also a miniature art-making party to make art for So Small, a miniature art auction fundraiser, with raffle tickets starting at $1 toward winning an art piece, with proceeds supporting scholarships and supplies.
Resonance Building (840 Lawrence St.) — Symphony for the Senses 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Not a concert, not a disco, not a game show, but somewhere in between, alive with senses, stories, and surprises. Family friendly and open to all. Free admission, with glow-up treasures and sensory surprises available for purchase throughout the evening. Art creation from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Symphony for the Senses performance starts at 7:30 p.m.
Angela Thomas’ art, on view at Sparrow Nest Coffee
Sparrow Nest Coffee (Lobby, 132 E. Broadway) — Topographical, nonsensical, and whimsical landscapes by Angela Thomas, using oils, acrylics, inks, papers, and found objects on canvas.
Starlight Lounge (830 Olive St.) — Featuring artist xoxo-your breastie, encapsulating the crowd’s energy created by musicians and painting vulnerably with the artist’s body, embraces thebody’s diverse abilities and pushing societal standards in a style that is playful, flowey, a little sassy, and engaging with firm, polite boundaries.
Window Activation (806 Charnelton St.) — Julie Anderson Bailey’s Origins, featuring three separate installations; can be viewed anytime, night or day, through the large windows.
About Lane Arts Council
Founded in 1976 as the centralized arts agency serving the Lane County region, Lane Arts Council is a multi-faceted nonprofit arts organization that provides arts education, arts advocacy, artist support, and community arts programs and services.
Above: Le Temps Moderne, by Ralf Huber, is part of a display at the Midtown Art Center,”revolving around industrial themes, reflecting on the history of human invention, retro-futurism, and imaginations of machines of the future.”
