COLUMBIA SPY

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Fourth Fridays Changes Its Name, Location, and Scope

A message from Chris Davis, director of Fourth Fridays in Columbia (now ARTA):

Fourth Fridays in Columbia has upgraded its non profit status to become a 501(c)3 tax exempt non profit. With the upgrade, we have created a new title for the venture, as we have embraced our two sister river towns: Marietta and Wrightsville.

The non-profit umbrella is titled: A.R.T.A.

Artistic River Towns Alliance

doing business as:

Fourth Fridays in Columbia

Fourth Fridays in Marietta

Fourth Fridays in Wrightsville

Our new main office will be located at 461 Locust Street in Columbia. This is a sizable location that will offer a welcome center for the Fourth Friday event, house an art gallery, offer artist studio space, children's & adult art classes, presentations and much more.

In 2007, Melissa Glenn, the acting director of the Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce (SVCC), started what was called "Fabulous Fourth Fridays." This event included all three river towns - Columbia, Marietta and Wrightsville - and ran for a three month period. Melissa passed away on the morning of her well-known and well-received Bridge Bust, on October 3, 2009. Following her death, I asked for the blessing of Melissa's husband and children to try to bring the Fourth Fridays concept alive, because I liked what she was attempting to do. My goal was to try and pull Marietta and Wrightsville into the event within three years, just as Melissa had originally attempted. We have now accomplished this.

We plan to have a grand opening and dedication ceremony at the A.R.T.A. building during the June Fourth Friday event on Friday, June 22nd. We are dedicating the in-house art gallery to the honor of Melissa Glenn. "The Glenn Gallery" will feature the works of Columbia, Marietta, and Wrightsville based artists for the grand opening, as well as the works of Melissa's brother Robert Haldeman.

We are all very excited and pleased to see this venture fall into place. Bringing awareness to what the three river towns have to offer is a priority to so many folks. There is a lot of passion, vision and dedication from multiple forms, individuals, and venues in all three towns. I think people will sense this and be intrigued.

It is hard to believe that nearly three years has passed since we held the first Fourth Fridays in Columbia.