In 1994, Artlink began promoting the monthly First Fridays art walk, which has grown to become one of the largest monthly art walks in the United States. With many venues open free to the public each month, First Fridays has succeeded in bringing people back to downtown Phoenix. The event sees anywhere from 14-20,000 visitors monthly and grows each year. Third Fridays came years later, and is sometimes referred to as “Gallery Night,” due to the number of exhibition openings that take place.
Check out the First Fridays Map Here
Visit our arts and culture calendar to find a current schedule of exhibitions and events for First & Third Friday and all the days in between.
First Fridays History
In the early 1990s a small group of artists created informal gatherings called “Phoenix Arts Afterhours,” where galleries and studios stayed open late and invited the public to explore a largely quiet downtown. By 1994, the nonprofit Artlink Inc. stepped in to help coordinate and legitimize the growing event, shifting it to the first Friday of each month and rebranding it as “First Fridays.” Artlink provided structure by organizing maps, promoting participating venues, acting as a liaison with the city, and sponsoring a circulating trolley that connected key districts and made the expanding event more accessible, though still a grassroots effort.
Over time, the event expanded through a gradually developing network of arts districts and institutions, including the Roosevelt Row, Historic Grand Avenue, the Warehouse District, Central Arts District and major cultural anchors like the Phoenix Art Museum, Herberger Theater Center and Downtown Phoenix Inc. Each organically contributed venues, programming, promotion support and audiences. This evolving collaboration helped transform First Fridays from a small, artist-led “experiment” into a broad cultural event central to downtown Phoenix’s revitalization.
