Mission

First Friday is a monthly citywide gallery night that encourages collaboration between small & mid-sized art venues in Rochester, NY. This initiative showcases area artists and smaller arts institutions by promoting the First Friday evening of each month as a community night for experiencing art.

Collective Impact

Since its founding by RoCo in 2008, First Friday has been intentionally designed to support the small art venues in and around the city by defining a time for them to collaborate, maintain open hours, & mutually benefit from cross-promotion and shared audiences. This initiative has grown considerably to include 40 venues that regularly host events throughout the year. First Friday only succeeds when all venues contribute and fully engage. If you’d like to be a part of First Friday, please support all of your peer venues by joining via the links below.

Want to host regular First Friday events?
1. Click here to contribute the annual $100 participation fee. These funds help offset some of the website and admin expenses of this program. It directly supports all of the other small venues who contribute and host First Friday events. Thank you for doing your part to help keep this program sustainable to benefit the entire community!

2. Meet with our team. We’ll schedule a time for you to meet our First Friday administrators, go over expectations, and get to know each other.

All First Friday Venues Agree to:
– Contribute a small annual participation fee to help support this community-built initiative
– Send all event listings and try to do this as early as possible for the most visibility
– Tag First Friday Rochester on Facebook and use #FirstFridayROC on all social media
– Share the First Friday event list graphic, posted to @roco137
– Interact with other venues’ posts to support and boost engagement for everyone
– Use the First Friday logo on promotions
– Install the First Friday venue sticker
– Attend First Friday venue meetings

3. Receive our emails. You’ll be added to our First Friday venue mailing list and can expect two emails a month reminding you to send us your listing.

4. Promote and cross-promote! First Friday is a collaborative effort. By using the #FirstFridayROC hashtag in your posts and sharing the official list of events on Instagram (posted by @roco137 the Tuesday before First Friday) you’ll be supporting all the other venues in this community, and being supported right back.

Want to organize a First Friday event for one night?
• One Month Only participation is $25 per event listing.
• Click here to send us your event information.

Are you an artist in Anderson Alley or The Refinery who wants an individual listing?
• Click here to contribute the discounted participation fee.
*For artists / businesses in the Anderson Arts Building or The Refinery only

*Note About Holidays*
First Friday occasionally lands on or near a national or religious holiday. Some participating venues may decide not to open on these dates. In order to avoid future confusion, First Friday Citywide Gallery Night doesn’t shift to another day or week (i.e. First Thursday or Second Friday).