Will Isern

wisern@pnj.com

Bars won't begin serving liquor outdoors until after 8 p.m.

Gallery Night will live on through the foreseeable future thanks to a group of downtown power players who have been meeting since June to keep the monthly street party alive.

Gallery Night had been set to end in September after the Downtown Improvement Board decided earlier this year to end its sponsorship of the event. Now, however, a new non-profit will take over Gallery Night and run it with a new emphasis on art.

Gallery Nights in the final three months of this year will be Oct. 21, Nov. 18 and Dec. 16.

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Gallery Night will remain much as it is now, with a few changes aimed at steering the event back toward its art-centric routes while keeping the popular party atmosphere intact. Once the new group takes over, Palafox Street will be closed from Garden Street to Main Street beginning at either 4 or 5 p.m. A curated group of artists will be invited to set up along Palafox Street until the official Gallery Night portion of the event ends at 8 p.m. Palafox Street will then remain closed for an after-party until midnight. Bars won't begin serving liquor outdoors until after 8 p.m.

"I think we got away from the art," said Michael Carro, a real estate broker spearheading the new group that will take over Gallery Night. "I think people are right that we're calling it Gallery Night, but I'm not seeing any art. So where's the art in Gallery Night? So I think the complaint is you're calling it something and it's not that. That's all. But whenever you get eight-ten-twelve thousand people, you've got something fantastic going on. That's a true success, but you're not giving them what you're advertising. That's why you have to invite the art community back into the game, and have them not only be a part of it, but have Gallery Night built around them not Gallery Night built around the after-party. There is going to be an after-party, and I'm excited about that; that's part of Gallery Night that I love. But I also miss how it used to be, that there used to be real art."

Apart from Carro, the new group taking over Gallery Night includes downtown developer Bobby Switzer, Fish House owner Collier Merrill, Hopjacks and Tin Cow owner Joe Abston, David Bear of The Lewis Bear Co., Susan Campbell of Susan Campbell Fine Jewelry, Pensacola Museum of Art executive director Raven Holloway, Pensacola State College art department head Krist Lien and PMA board member Teresa Dos Santos.

Carro said the group has not yet formed the new non-profit, nor come up with a name for itself. Once the non-profit is formed, Carro said, it will solicit sponsorships, partnerships and donations to cover the estimated $10,000 a month it will take to put on each Gallery Night.

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