{"id":109229,"date":"2026-01-03T04:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/109229\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T04:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:44:07","slug":"first-friday-artwalk-of-2026-draws-crowds-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/109229\/","title":{"rendered":"First Friday Artwalk of 2026 draws crowds downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dozens of people filled the downtown area to experience local art, vendors and small businesses that make the monthly event a staple for the community.<\/p>\n<p>CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Downtown Corpus Christi was the place to be Friday night as crowds gathered for the latest First Friday ArtWalk.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiiitv.com\/article\/news\/local\/1k-runners-take-over-downtown-for-cctx-marathon\/503-cf1ae7c3-cb7e-4620-8af3-40de7eca350c\" class=\"cms__embed-related-story__link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More than 1,000 runners to take over downtown for CCTX Marathon<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dozens of people filled the downtown area to experience local art, vendors and small businesses that make the monthly event a staple for the community.<\/p>\n<p>For many attendees, ArtWalk is a chance to take in everything downtown Corpus Christi has to offer. For Steve Sullivan, it is also an opportunity to continue his family\u2019s legacy of creating custom jewelry \u2014 a business venture started by his father in 1981.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd he actually started selling jewelry right out of like a suitcase,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n<p>Sullivan said carrying on what his father built and pushing it forward into 2026 feels surreal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m getting older so it gets a little bit more rougher. But it does mean a lot. If my dad could look back on what I&#8217;m doing today, it would mean a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>That mindset, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/godowntowncc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Downtown Management District<\/a> Executive Director Arlene Medrano, is what continues to drive ArtWalk\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s called ArtWalk because our galleries are open. We have vendors who are artists who sell their art here as well as their homemade creations, and so it&#8217;s really an opportunity for families to come together,\u201d Medrano said.<\/p>\n<p>Medrano said that growth does not slow down as the seasons change. Even during the winter months, ArtWalk continues \u2014 just in a different form.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn December, January, and February, we don&#8217;t do any street closures, but we do activate. We are currently in Artesian Park, and we also have activations in La Retama Park, in the Ritz Theatre parking lot at the Art Center of Corpus Christi,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of people filled the downtown area to experience local art, vendors and small businesses that make the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-109229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}