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Strivers Row Artists Hosting Second Harlem Art Walk

By DNAinfo Staff on September 28, 2010 6:28am

By Jon Schuppe

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

HARLEM — With the demise — at least temporarily — of a popular autumn arts tour, two smaller offshoots hope to keep drawing people to Harlem during a single weekend in October.

The Strivers Art Circuit is focusing on artists and galleries north of 130th Street, while the Harlem Art Walking Tour features the southern part of the neighborhood. Both events will be held Oct. 9 and 10.

The artists behind the two tours are veterans of the Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour (HOAST), which featured emerging and well-known artists but was thrown into jeopardy when organizers said they could not focus on putting together a 2010 event.

Laura Gadson, a quilt and craft artist who exhibits in her West 134th Street brownstone, first helped put together the Strivers Art Circuit in 2008 as a part of the larger HOAST event. The plan was to have a promotional happening to fall back on in case HOAST didn’t continue, she said.

When Lawrence Rodriguez, owner of the Mount Morris gallery Casa Frela, announced plans for the Harlem Art Walking Tour, Gadson and her colleagues in Strivers Row decided to “piggyback” on his event, she said.

The self-guided Strivers Art Circuit covers the area bounded by 130th Street, 145th Street, Fifth Avenue and St. Nicholas Avenue. It stops at 12 exhibition spaces and is sponsored by the Harlem Arts Alliance.