On the third Friday of every other month, downtown Lexington is the place to be.
That’s LexArts HOP night, eagerly anticipated, enthusiastically attended, a choose-your-own-adventure event designed to put you in the rooms with a stimulating cross-section of local visual art.
On HOP night, dozens of galleries, museums, artists’ studios, and creative spaces conventional-and-un, collectively throw open their doors. And everyone, from seasoned Hoppers to arts newbies to just-lookers, to collectors, to people simply wanting to make the scene, is welcome to wander in.
HOP has something for locals and visitors alike. A chance to encounter the visual arts up close and personal. To expand horizons, cultivate taste, open eyes and minds. To browse venue after venue of unique, affordable works in a dizzying spectrum of media, materials and genres. To socialize with friends and strangers. To put faces to the artists who envision and create these works. And to maybe start a new collection or add the perfect piece to an existing one.
HOP happens six times a year, because it’s more than even the most ambitious can take in on a single Friday night. And because Lexington’s vibrant visual arts scene never stands still — new exhibitions and new sites rotate in and out of an ever-changing roster — there’s always something new to experience.
Some HOP sites are pop-ups, but many have regular hours that you can find in the handy HOP Guide, which you can pick up at LexArts on Mill, 161 N. Mill Street, or download at https://lexarts.org/discover/lexarts-hop/.