Commerce Street Art District is home to 16 art galleries. Its hope is to spread art awareness and appreciation in the city of Wichita and make all art-forms a more recreational activity for everyone. Each final Friday of the month, Commerce Street participates in the city of Wichita’s monthly “Final Friday” event that gives artists the opportunity to show and sell their work to art fans and buyers. For a map of Final Friday participating galleries, please visit downtownwichita.org. If you’d like to receive more information about Final Friday and other Commerce Street events, send your email address to info@dustinparker.com.

COMMERCE STREET GALLERIESDock 410

Chris Stong Fiber Studio

The Loft at 420 Diver Studio

Go Away GarageThe Commerce Gallery

Fisch HausElizabeth Stevenson Design

Herr Dinger PressHighflow Sound

Kent Williams Consulting for the Human EnvironmentThe Simone Chickenbone Institute

Clotia Wood and Metal WorksSteve Brown Photography

Continental Coatings

Art proves that there is a culture. -BRITTANY ENGLISH

I think we are definitely a product of our environment so I could see how location would have an effect on our art. I think that's changing with the times. We're much more globally connected these days so I don't know if location has as profound an effect as it did years ago. -JOHN DENNY

Art influences culture and gives people something to identify with. Art does not generally disappear and so people from all generations can identify with the art and thus connect with each other. -RUBEN LERMA

Art is how people express them themselves and their culture. Their perspective of how the feel and what they see from literature to fashion to how people act -SARAH KELLY

Art is a reflection of society; likewise, society reflects artwork. So art is created to mirror events and feelings of the time (ei., rap music's conception amidst racial injustice within North American society) and once an art move-ment or idea becomes "big" enough, you'll see bits and pieces of it turning up more and more affect-ing other corners of society and even seeping out of its birth society into others -STEVEN JOHNSON

Art brings us together in brain waves. I've experienced it firsthand while traveling abroad with a handful of non-art majors gallery hopping. Once the painting, the artist, the style or the time was explained, the lightbulb went off. it's just a different way to connect to those around us in a way that might not be entirely obvious. -BRITTANY ENGLISH

I think art is simultaneously individual expression and an expression of our connectedness. I think as humans we have some inherit artistic shit inside of us that is hard to explain. I think in literature it's our tendency to retell the same stories with different characters and places. We have these myths that we always go back to for some reason. Probably because they evolved in our brains to carry on important information and got retold over and over till they became part of our nature. I don't know I'm not a scientist. -JOHN DENNY

Art gives us something to talk about with each other and argue and thus create dialogue with each other. -RUBEN LERMA

Art is a form of communication in different formats that bring people together through unique and complex ways. -SARAH KELLY

Even though humans have the most diverse ways to communicate with one another, we still seem to bonk up on communicating with one another. Using art in the right way can really open one's eyes to a different way of thinking and convey ideas and emotions that are sometimes very hard, for any number of reasons, for someone to communicate. -STEVEN JOHNSON

Art connects people in many ways, but the way that interests me is the one on one personal interactions. When I am around artists who make visual or sculptural art I get them, and they get me. -MIKE MILLER

Showing your art is often a very vulnerable thing to do. You're showing hours of work, frustration, trial & error, mistakes, and tears for public judgement. -BRITTANY ENGLISH

This gives one the chance to be critiqued by a wide range of individuals— colleagues, professionals, critics, art enthusiasts, etc.

If you're always cooped up in your studio alone working, you won't get that eye-opening outside opinion on your work. -STEVEN JOHNSON

Showing my art in a gallery is not the important thing. Showing my art to people who want to see and buy art is what is important. The art gallery is simply the traditional way of doing that. Last fall the local artist Wade Hampton had a two day art sale in his home, and sold his drawings and paintings for a total somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. Which is becom-ing a very popular way of selling art because there is no % commission that has to be paid to the gallery. There is another aspect to showing my art. There are two reasons that I create art. The first is the pleasure I get when I'm in my studio making stuff "The Process" I can work for 12 to 16 hours straight and love it, and do it again the next day. The second is when I get to show the finished piece to people "The Show Off" part. An artist just has to admit even if it is embarrassing that when people tell you that they like your work that it makes you feel good. When I was in grade school we had "show and tell" where we would bring our cool things from home and stand up in front of class and brag about our cool toy or whatever. Showing my art in an art show is basically the same thing. -MIKE MILLER

The best advice I ever got when debating whether or not to pursue a career in art was "play to your strengths.” Art has been an integral part of my life since kindergarten. It has been something that came easily and naturally to me. It was second nature to think creatively, out of the box, and to find an alternate way of doing things. -BRITTANY ENGLISH

Only do this if you're fully prepared for the extreme uphill battle that you will be facing week after week. If you can't handle going from total confidence in yourself one day to complete hatred of your own work the next day, then don't be a professional creative. If there is even a shadow of doubt in your soul that this isn't the right thing for you, then don't waste anytime trying and instead support the artists you believe in. The art world needs more supporters and less half-assed ‘artists.’ -STEVEN JOHNSON

The best advise; is just do it, You may not make as much money, and you may have to work twice as hard as somebody with a normal job. But you will be doing something that is a challenge, that makes you learn something new every day, and because you are always growing you will never get bored. You will never want to retire. And you are doing that thing that makes us different than bugs. -MIKE MILLER

To me, Commerce Street is the closest thing we have to a large tight-knit art community. Even though it's only a block long, a lot of artists come and go down its brick paved street. I wish it was more: more galleries, closer together. Wichita could easily be a very cool "walk and stroll" kind of city, but locations are often too far apart for people to enjoy them properly. -BRITTANY ENGLISH

I think the Commerce Street Art District is the seed that started the current expansion of the Wichita art scene. It all started with the four guys who bought the building that became the Fisch Haus in the early 1990's, and the art scene has been building ever since. My favorite gallery is the Diver Studio. Partially because it's a great space, and also because John and Connie Ernett the owners are professional artists themselves. And they know how to put on a really good show. -MIKE MILLER