The FFY Committee is comprised of Kayj Michelle as President, Elize Jekabson as Vice President, Alex Mandrila as Secretary and Katie Hale as Treasurer. Bona Sera pioneered the First Fridays brand in Ypsilanti with their artshows. Now current FFY venues are Bona Sera, Beezy's Cafe, Ugly Mug Cafe & Roastery, B-24's Espresso Bar, and FLY Children's Art Center. We want to build a network of Ypsi businesses (Downtown & Depot Town) showcasing local artists and performers. This will create a positive buzz to surrounding areas and encourage people to join in the monthly Art Crawls. With our growth in FFY venues, we will expand from Downtown into Depot Town. We are currently building partnerships with Riverside Arts Center (who have the gateway to Depot Town!), Ypsilanti Art Incubator (currently curating the Riverside Off-Center Gallery), Teresa Gillotti (City Planner/Ypsi), DAY & DDA(via Barb at Bona Sera) , and more. We also have received interested form several Depot Town Merchants. FFY has a mission to unite the Downtown & Depot Town areas with this monthly Art Crawl.
Gillotti is interested in facilitating between the City and FFY to use vacant commercial space to host pop-up markets during the FFY Art Crawls! This is currently being brainstormed about as we continue to develop the FFY program. Everyone in the FFY Committee are volunteers and need help funding the development of the FFY program. Once spring hits FFY will be ready to welcome a debut Art Crawl which will hopefully include art installations/performances in the street between spread out venues, the pop-up market, clear skies. We will implement a system for collecting funds to sustain cohesive marketing for all participating venues.