Art Attack—I feel like it should be more like "ART ATTAAAAAACK!!!!!!!" and everybody is storming the doors of the Northrup King Building in Nordeast. Yeah, that's better.
Northrup King Building is a large warehouse brimming with artist studios. Every Thursday they host an open-studio event called First Thursday in the Arts District. It's pretty good but a few times per year, they pull out the big paints and brushes and create these mega-masterpieces like Art-a-Whirl and Art Attack. Essentially an amped up version of First Thursday, all 200+ of the artists in the building are hanging out, chatting it up with customers and doing demos for those who would rather join in than watch the professionals at work. Potters, glass blowers, painters, weavers, metal-workers—they've got at least one of each so everyone will be able to find some interesting local art to explore.
I'm going to check out Angel Bomb Design + Letterpress to be sure. It's a small print shop that uses vintage presses to make the most beautiful posters, invitations and more. If you've never seen an old letterpress in action, it's a must. It sounds like they are going to be doing demos and letting people take home their own creations. Don't try to use one of these things unsupervised though. I doubt you want to be the one who breaks a machine that costs more than your mid-sized sedan's Blue Book value.
I've attended a few of these events and Art Attack is a fun and cheap date with your significant other or your mom. It's family friendly too, so no need to leave the tator tots at home. This year you can even bring Fido along in spirit and paint his doggie drool from memory at the Dog Essence painting activity in Studio 390. No real dogs allowed though, for obvious reasons. In my experience dogs eat art. If you eat it, you buy it.
