Merced Art Hop

Two local downtown business owners had a vision to organize Merced’s 1st Art Hop. One of the owners which herself is an artist, wanted to support local talent because there is very few opportunities to exhibit their work, and also help stimulate the local economy. Meanwhile, two other business owners were envisioning the same thing for the same reasons. With a little strategy and a lot of serendipity, the four met in August 2008 even a local newspaper, was in full support, bolstering confidence and pushing our promotions efforts even further.The only trouble was, art hops require art galleries, and Merced doesn’t have many of those—not much “hop” to that. So, we had an idea and went door-to-door asking businesses if they could stay open late for one night and pretend to be a gallery. To the committee’s delight, the response was overwhelming! The rest is history.Now every third month Merced downtown streets get filled with huge crowds,and tons of talent. the next event will be July 20, 2013 5-9pm