Meet Me on Main debuts this Saturday, Jan. 12 in the Carmel Arts & Design District. It will include all of your favorite components of the Second Saturday Gallery Walks including live music, face painting and caricatures, new exhibits and features in local art galleries and businesses staying open until 9 p.m.
Meet Me on Main will offer expanded options of “hands-on” art for the public offered every month. In January, The Art Lab joins the fun to create pressed clay coasters from 5 to 8:30 p.m. This event is free and no sign-up is required. It will be held at 110 W. Main Street, Suite 125, next to Highgarden Real Estate.
New to Meet Me on Main is a monthly drawing. Each month, three $100 gift cards to businesses in the Arts & Design District will be given away. To enter, participants can visit participating galleries and businesses to fill out an entry form. Only one can be filled out per location but the more businesses visited, the more you can increase your chances. There is no purchase necessary to participate.
The City of Carmel’s Caffeine Trail returns in January for Tea Tasting 101. Discover the variety of tea types along with a tea tasting as Tina Jesson, owner of Tina’s Traditional Tea Room (30 N. Range Line Road) discusses the possible health benefits of tea, how tea is processed to form each variety and benefits and flavors of herbal teas. Tina’s classic cucumber sandwiches and shortbreads will also be available as snacks for the evening. The Caffeine Trail will also sponsor three gift baskets that will be given away to one lucky person each hour. Tea Tasting 101 takes place at the top of each hour at 5, 6 and 7 p.m.
Special gallery exhibits will be featured throughout Meet Me on Main including:
- Hoosier Salon will be featuring Winter Light, an exhibit of winter scenes by some of Indiana’s best landscape painters including Roy Boswell, Corrine Hull, Pam Newell, Jerry Smith and many others. (111 W. Main St., #140)
- Art Lab will be open during Meet Me on Main for open studio work in addition to their Make & Take Project on Main Street. (31 E. Main St., #300; enter via 37 E. Main St.)
- Visit CCA Gallery’s Indoor Sidewalk Sale for great original art at fabulous prices. The sale continues through the month of January. (111 W. Main St., #135)
- In January, the Carmel Arts Council Children’s Art Gallery will feature student art from Prairie Trace Elementary, CCS middle schools and Carmel High School. The Community Art exhibit will feature Cartier artwork from the CHS Life Skills Class. (40 W. Main St.)
- Soori Gallery features paintings, bronze and acrylic sculptured works by leading American and international artists. Featured sculptors include Michael Wilkinson, Frederick Hart, Jerry Joslin and more. (33 E. Main St.)
Activities taking place during Meet Me on Main include:
- Free caricatures and face painting by Custom Eyes Designs inside Sub Zero Ice Cream (111 W. Main St., #130).
- Free musical entertainment throughout the district. Molly Jones will play at Evan Lurie Gallery, Jeff Reed will perform at Hoosier Salon and Circle City Steel will be at The Olive Mill.
- Tea Tasting 101 at Tina’s Traditional Tea Room at the top of each hour at 5, 6 and 7 p.m. Enter to win a gift basket at each session sponsored by the Carmel Caffeine Trail.
- Free Make & Take Art Project with the Art Lab from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Create your own pressed clay coaster at 110 W. Main Street, Suite 125, next to Highgarden Real Estate. The location is sponsored by Keystone Realty Group. No registration necessary.
A map of the gallery locations and more information about Meet Me on Main activities can be found at CarmelArtsAndDesign.com.
Public parking is available in the Carmel Lions Club lot (141 E. Main St.), Sophia Square parking garage (entrance off of 1st Avenue NW), Indiana Design Center parking garage (200 S. Range Line Road) or on-street. The Arts & Design District parking map may be downloaded at this link.
About the Carmel Arts & Design District
The Carmel Arts & Design District is the Midwest’s premier arts and design destination. Home to more than 200 businesses, including art galleries, restaurants, antique dealers, design showrooms, boutiques, and creative service providers, the Carmel Arts & Design District promises to stimulate the senses. The Indiana Design Center is housed in the Carmel Arts & Design District. In addition, hundreds have taken advantage of the wide variety of housing opportunities and call the Carmel Arts & Design District home.