This week: Art melts your face off

Arguably the biggest art event in Baton Rouge, Art Melt happens this Saturday in and around the Shaw Center downtown. Besides being the largest juried art exhibit in the state, Art Melt is also a huge block party with music and performances at the Shaw Center and North Boulevard’s Town Square, food, drinks and an arts market. If anyone still has doubts about the vibrancy of the local art scene (and, for real, y’all should just quit it), brave the heat and don your best sweaty weather clothes for an evening showcasing some fantastic local artists.

Music at the 3rd Street Main Stage includes synth-pop from Rareluth and prog-rock from headliners Twin Killers, among others. The Town Square stage features multiple poetry slams, performances by Of Moving Colors, Opera Louisianne and more. A panel discussion featuring leaders of the local arts community starts at 5 p.m. And once Art Melt is over, if you feel like browsing the variety of submissions with smaller crowds, the selected pieces will be on show in the Shaw Center for four weeks following the event.

Art Melt runs 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Saturday. artmelt.org. For info on the preview party Friday, go here.

And because every big, juried art event needs an underground equivalent, Elevator Projects is giving those who didn’t make the cut for Art Melt a chance to show off their artwork at Radio Bar in Mid City the same night. Raina Wirta, one of the founders of Elevator Projects, says the event aims to promote artists who may have been rejected from the juried Art Melt, missed the deadline or couldn’t pay the submission fee. Held the same evening as Art Melt (Saturday, 10 p.m.-2 a.m.), consider it an after party for the art-hungry crowd that offers an edgier perspective on the city’s art scene.

The Elevator Projects show runs 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturday. Facebook.com/ElevatorProjects.

And don’t forget all the other great exhibits happening around town that are worth checking out this weekend. The Baton Rouge Gallery shows off works from three artist members, Mary Ann Caffery, Paulo Dufour and Craig McCullen, all known for their incredible use of glass—stained glass, sculptural forms and mixed media. The exhibit runs through July 26. batonrougegallery.org.

The Tale of Two Cities exhibit at LSU’s Museum of Art closes this month. It features the gorgeous black and white photos of Paris and New York by famed photographers Eugčne Atget and Berenice Abbott. In conjunction with the photography exhibit, a collection of dresses and accessories from the LSU Textile and Costume Museum are also on display, showcasing designs from New York and Paris dating from 1910-1950. Both exhibits are on view until July 22. lsumoa.com.

And without even leaving the Shaw Center, you can visit LSU School of Art’s Glassell Gallery for the 11th annual Summer Invitational Art Show, featuring more than 50 artists drawing from their dreams to create new works, which runs until Aug. 3. glassellgallery.org.

EDIT: Just to show how much really is going on around town, we’ve got a few more to add to the list this week.

Merchants in the Mid City area are hosting “A Mid City Night’s Dream” on Thursday from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. It’s a smaller version of the spring and fall art hops, with participating shops including Artvark, Ltd., Atomic Pop Shop, Brew Ha Ha!, Elizabethan Gallery, Mosaic Garden, Rue Cou Cou, Circa 1857 and Ty Larkins Interiors. Take a walk and browse from shop to shop, grab some refreshments and relish in the fact that the designated cultural district doesn’t have a sales tax on original art. For more information, click here.

One of the participating venues, Elizabethan Gallery, is having an opening reception during the Mid City event. “Louisiana, Life & Lagniappe,” a collection of new paintings by the Associated Women in the Arts, will be showing from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. Thursday. The exhibit continues through Aug. 25. For more information, click here.

—The smART City blog focuses on smart growth and the art scene in Baton Rouge, as well as occasions when those two topics collide. Email assistant editor Benjamin Leger at [email protected].