Plaza Midwood Artists Studio Crawl

The Plaza Midwood Artists Studio Crawl returns to Plaza Midwood on Saturday, October 10, from 11 AM to 5 PM. It's a simple enough premise: ten working artists in the neighborhood open up their private studios and homes for the day, and you wander through them at your own pace.

The range of what you'll find is a good part of the draw. Painting and mixed media are there, along with sculpture, jewelry, and pottery. You'll also run into digital design, robots, and even artisanal chocolate-making. Among the ten participating artists are painters Dee Blackburn and Lyz Kelk, jewelry artist Kelly Carlson-Reddig, Oliver Lewis—who goes by 'The Robot Artist' and works with light manipulation—and potter Gary Rubin.

Once you're inside, it's more than just looking at finished pieces. You meet the artists in their own workspaces, get a sense of how they actually make their work, and can buy original pieces right there. Some of them hold demonstrations or run special activities throughout the day, so it's worth hanging around a bit longer if you're curious about the process.

Logistically, it's a self-guided affair. You start by picking up a map of the studios at Wiloe, an upscale home and gift shop on Central Avenue at the corner of Club Road, which also carries a selection of work by local artists. From there, you just wander the neighborhood. The crawl sits alongside the area's wider art scene, which includes the Hawthorne Art Walk and a first-of-the-year gallery walk that showcase the neighborhood's murals and interactive demos. It's free to attend, and since you set your own pace, you can see as many or as few studios as you like between 11 AM and 5 PM.