Short North Gallery Hop

I love gallery hop weekends. The worst part is the impossible parking situation. But it is so much fun and a great activity to do with out of town guests. It makes me feel like I’m in NYC!

I love Gallery hop!, there is always something new and cool to check out, and it always brings out the crowds.
It’s really cool how such a large part of the community comes out to this. everyone is walking around stopping at bars, checking out local art, and local shops. It’s such a fun event.
It’s events like this that really allow us to grow and become a city with so many really cool little places.
Most the shops do discount prices, and are open later then they usually would be, so its kind of like a black Friday, but every month.

A+ for people watching, a fun atmosphere, and free entertainment! Sure, it’s called the Gallery Hop, but it’s really more of a complete experience, with the myriad of shops and restaurants all open late. Musicians and vendors line the sidewalks, adding more arts, crafts, and jewelry for the viewing.
The Gallery Hop takes place the first Saturday of each month, but thanks to the changing exhibits and different special activities, it is constantly reinventing itself. Ultimately, however, the hop is whatever you want it to be. Stroll around and glance in windows, and pop in wherever something catches your eye. Grab a bite to eat or stop for a drink. My must-​stop is always the Global Gallery to check out the newest fair trade goodies.
Parking can be a pain, so carpools and comfy walking shoes can be helpful.

The first Saturday of the month, Short North shops leave their doors open late for Gallery Hop. In the midst, you can see street performers, jazz bands, magicians, live artist sketchings, all sorts of talent.
On any other day, Short North is your typical bohemian neighborhood, but come Gallery Hop, people pour in by the swarms! Parking is horrendous around dinnertime. Also, be prepared to feed the meters until 10:00pm. They’re good for up to three hours. DO NOT park at the metered lot directly in front of the apartments across from Goodale Park. These are for residents and you will be towed.
Parking logistics aside, my friends and I had a great time visiting from Cincinnati. We have a similar event back home called Final Friday in the Gateway Quarter (our equivalent to Short North.)
Our evening consisted of dinner at Lemongrass, then browsing some shops like Chocoholique and F+F while enjoying the street talent. We strolled from Goodale to Hubbard and came back around. It was sweltering at 104º that day, so we didn’t get as far as we liked. Instead, our halfway point became margaritas at La Fogata. They have 15 flavors to choose from! Our evening ended with iced coffees at MoJoe and people watching on the patio.
Definitely start your evening early if you want to check out a lot of shops. Don’t bother going to Jeni’s on this night, especially if you’ve made the pilgrimage from out-​of-​town. The line stays consistently wrapped around the block. Plenty to see and do here, especially since the shops are open until 10:00pm!

The best part of the 1^st Saturday Gallery Hops isn’t the shops, you can visit those any time, it’s the general activity and atmosphere when you pack that much into High St.
Walking the sidewalks and seeing all the street performers is a blast. From small bands, to impromptu break dancing, chalk and graffiti artists, it’s a great time.
While plenty of parents do come with their kids, please make sure you’re prepared to keep them close by. There are just so many people that it’s difficult to navigate with a stroller and hold on to hands.

So before you make all kinds of snide or rude or condescending or cynical or wannabe ironic or quizzical remarks about this review, and before you begin comparing the Gallery Hop to countless other similar events in other places with more reputable or interesting galleries, let me just say that even in Columbus, Ohio, there are cool people with cool ideas. You may not believe that, but it’s true.
When my brother lived in the Short North – which, in case you’re keeping score at home, is a neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio; this was also a couple of years before I lived in the Near West Side, which is a neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio; my brother and I moved to Ohio at two different times for two different reasons, and we never lived in the state at the same time; go figure – it was 1996. Mind you, this was before farmers markets and block parties and temporary pedestrian-​only zones were becoming faddish all over the country. And yet every month, they had this thing called Gallery Hop in which people walked around and basically had fun in the neighborhood.
Again, I know this isn’t terribly unique now, but I think it was at the time, especially in Central Ohio.
Here’s the story for which you’ve all been waiting: My brother is basically the only nonprofessional who cuts my hair, so when he lived in Ohio, I didn’t get too many haircuts. Needless to say, one of my mom’s only requests for my trip to visit my brother was that I was to come back with my hair cut. So right before we were going to check out the Gallery Hop, my brother began cutting my hair. At the time, he normally used a combination of scissors and an electric clipper, and he had recently bought a new cordless clipper. The problem was that the battery either wasn’t fully charged or didn’t hold a charge very well. So halfway through my haircut, the clipper died. He didn’t have the plug-​in kind with him, and there was no way to charge the battery in time, so he suggested we check out the Gallery Hop while waiting for the battery to charge.
Since it was my brother who was cutting my hair, I trusted that he had done a decent enough job for me to be seen in public. But as we were walking around on High Street amid more people than I knew lived in Columbus, I noticed that there were hair clippings on my collar. I brushed them off, only to notice that there were hair clippings on my face and in my ears as well. I tried to object to my brother, but it was really loud, and he said I looked fine.
When we got back to his apartment, I didn’t even look in the mirror because I didn’t want to know how embarrassed I should have been. He finished the haircut, and we went out again.
It’s pretty cool. I’m not into all the galleries, but there is a nice sense of non-​froufrou community, and that’s refreshing. And the good people of Ohio, at least those who attended Gallery Hops in the mid-‘90s, aren’t so shallow that they would publicly humiliate a person walking around with a partial haircut and hair clippings all over himself. Thank you, Ohio.

I have never been overly impressed by the Short North Gallery Hop over the years. You see a lot of people turn out who seem to be there only to be seen. The sidewalks and restaurants get crowded here every time so getting around can be hard at times. Good selection of works to look at with some vendors on the street. Expect a young, hip crowd accentuated by those that are 50+. Not a bad way to spend an evening on a date.

Sorry, but I wasn’t impressed. No parking, a crapload of people in every single store, and not that many galleries. I walked around with a group of my friends, and we ended up dropping by 4 – 5 galleries before barhopping to Bodega and Surly Girl.

Note the progressive worsening of my reviews:
Goodbye Urban Gardner and Byzantium. Goodbye to the underground amateur gallery. Goodbye OAL. Goodbye, now, to Kathryn.
Hello average to sub-​par «theme» restaurants. Hello activists and mediocre musicians. Hello bad facial, worse mini-​skirts, and horrible cologne.

Another month, another Gallery Hop! I’m beginning to think that I had fallen victim to a bad case of ‘local syndrome’ in regard to the Gallery Hop. You know, that feeling of been there, done that, over it, ugh. But this time, a group of us made our way from a Kentucky Derby party down to the Gallery hop with a friend who had never been before. It was refreshing to see the Hop through the eyes of a newbie! And it definitely sparked my enthusiasm in the event again!
We got down there fairly late (and so full of food and alcohol from the party) so we didn’t stay long — just long enough to walk from the Cap to the White Castle, cross over, and walk back, all whilst stopping at a few shops and galleries.
Its definitely much more fun in the warmer weather and I’m so glad that Columbus has decided to come out hibernation! Even though we didn’t have a whole night of things planned, it was a fun outing. I prefer to make an evening of it. Getting dinner (pick a restaurant, any restaurant, they are all fun), doing a little shopping (window shopping most of the time!), after dinner coffee at Impero (
), *drool* any and all flavors at Jeni’s *drool* (
), and then a bit of alcoholic libation.
I’ve never had any trouble finding parking since I realized I could park over at Goodale Park and walk. You gotta burn off that ice cream you know…

People say there’s no parking during the Gallery Hop. That’s true. And they say there’s too many drunk college kids and not enough art; that’s true too. But nobody says the Gallery Hop isn’t FUN. Because it’s amazing.
It is one of those things that makes you happy that you live in Columbus. I’ve never experienced anything like it in any other city. It’s a night out with 10,000 of your closest friends and neighbors strolling around under the guise of browsing art. It’s just about perfect.
And yeah, if you’re lucky, you might find a cool piece of art or two, but you can go to the galleries anytime to do that. The Gallery Hop is about the Event itself; it’s about our community. It’s a county fair with culture, and that’s why it is worth going, whether you know who Matthew Barney is or not.

If it’s the first Saturday of the month, I’m falling in love with Gallery Hop all over again.
The Short North Gallery Hop was the first real «Columbus» thing I did when I moved here 4 years ago and it was such a change of scenery from my small-​town-​Ohio life that I was instantly smitten. Whenever I have company from out-​of-​town, I usually try to coordinate their visit with a gallery hop — and they always love it.
If you’re not familiar or local, Gallery Hop is when the shops, art galleries, and restaurants in the Short North neighborhood of town stay open late on Saturday, with live music and craft vendors lining the streets and a lively crowd to boot.
Ahem… in the style of Green Eggs and Ham:
So I will go their with a date
And I will go their with my mates
And I will take my family, too
Say! I would take, you, you and YOU!
I do so like gallery hop
Thank you! Thank you, Short North Shops!
— Parking is a biotch
+ You can spend $ 0 and still have a great time

I’ve seen pieces of work during the course of gallery hop that my eyeballs and heart both loved and which i would enjoy on the wall of my place. Then i’ve seen art during the Hop that was tripe-​a pretentious waste of space.
A friend of mine who works as a bartender in a popular Short North tavern hates working gallery hop: The level of madness goes up, as does the frequency of demanding customers, but the tips stay the same. Funny, because the richer Columbusites often come to the Hop in droves for dinner and art viewing and you’d think they would share the wealth, right?
But, by and large, the hop is a good thing for the city and a pleasant way to spend a few hours on a Saturday night, especially if the weather is fair. I do enjoy walking the streets with all the other folks and seeing the different faces and types. Plus, the free refreshments at many galleries are rewarding, even if the art is not.

Gallery Hop is so much fun — it really sums up the flavor that Columbus has to offer. If you haven’t tried it, you should, because you might be surprised to find that Columbus can actually be that cool. And it’s something that’s totally unique to this city.
Gallery Hop is essentially just arts galleries and bars and restaurants along High Street opening their doors so you can pass through if you wish — it’s not really anything that you can’t do any other night of the week. Sure, there’s sometimes special events going on and CD101 is usually set up somewhere, but Gallery Hop is about getting out and enjoying what Columbus’ local businesses have to offer. It was a great idea and a great way to help keep these small businesses alive, because people who might never otherwise check out any of these small art galleries or clothing stores now are.
What I like about Gallery Hop is the people. It’s pretty crowded, but I live right by the Short North, so it’s great to see so many different kinds of people out there all enjoying themselves together. You’ll find everything from homeless people out there having a good time, to the wealthy people who can actually afford to buy the art in the galleries. And somehow it all works.
Gallery Hop is really what you make it. You can personalize it to be the kind of experience you want it to be. You can just hit the art galleries, or just go bar hopping, go out to eat and hang out in one of the restaurants and watch the people walk by, or what I usually do is just walk the length of Gallery Hop and just see where it takes me.
Another cool thing is that street performers will play here and there and you wonder where all these people came from. All of the sudden, on the first Saturday of every month, Columbus comes alive with such a vast array of culture. It’s really quite exciting.
Gallery Hop is free and it’s something for couples, friends, families, or you could even go it alone. Just end up in the Short North on the first Saturday of the month and you’re there. I’m lucky because I live so close that I can just walk, but driving around during the event isn’t easy. There’s a lot of traffic and parking is an issue. I think that most people have to end up parking on a side street and then walking to get to High St.
It’s great in the summertime and warm weather because since it’s so comfortable outside, you really feel like you can enjoy yourself. But unfortunately, everyone else has the same idea you do, so good luck getting a patio seat anywhere in the Short North during Gallery Hop. The wintertime can always be fun. Around Christmas there’s all kinds of pretty lights and decorations and trees, but it gets so cold that the galleries and bars all get really crowded because people just want to get warm. But random people will start fires in big trash bins and I remember one time, while Gallery Hopping with some friends in December, we stopped to roast marshmallows with some friendly people in a (safe) contained fire they had started. Certainly not what I thought I’d be doing on a Saturday night, but that’s the beauty of Gallery Hop: it’s all randomness and spontaneity.
Gallery Hop happens every month, rain or shine. The galleries and shops all close around 10, but the restaurants and bars stay open much later, so you could make a whole night out of it if you wanted to. It’s a really fun experience, but be prepared for a parking nightmare, lots of walking, and long waits and crowds. And be sure to bundle up if it’s cold!

Us residents of Columbus tend to underrate our city. We think, what could possibly be special about Columbus? Well, The Short North and its Gallery Hop is one of the best answers. Believe it or not The Short North is well-​known because it is so active for an art district. I’ve heard that the Short North Gallery Hop has actually been used as a model for other art districts that are trying to revive themselves or take off. People come from all over to go to The Gallery Hop.
Going with friends is in my opinion the only way to do The Gallery Hop. I am an artist myself but looking at artwork and eating food all by myself would get boring really quickly. There is another reason for going with friends. Obviously there are LOTS of people in the middle of a large city and it is safest to go with people you trust. Not that The Gallery Hop is a dangerous activity, but it is common sense — especially for women.
Art is the main reason people do The Gallery Hop, but a close second is food. People have different plans of attack, but for good reason many of them have the idea of stopping at Jeni’s ice creams in between galleries. Normally the Short North location of Jeni’s is very busy but during Gallery Hop the line will stretch out the door for a looong way! I do recommend Jeni’s, but I also would recommend trying some other ice cream places around that won’t be as crowded.
So, if you want an experience that is essential Columbus, The Short North and its Gallery Hop is number one on my list.

Gallery Hop can be fun and Gallery Hop can be boring. Not usually both at once, though– it’s a hit-​or-​miss event for me. Sometimes I have a grand ol’ time drinking wine, gawking at art I can’t afford, and seeing what sort of characters have come out of the woodwork that month.
It can be a bit busy, to be true– some of the smaller galleries get so crowded I just gloss over them or even skip by. And I’ve only rarely braved a bar during a hop. I shudder. And I like crowds!
While I don’t go to Gallery Hop as often as I used to, I’m glad to know that such an event exists in town. A touch of class and a bunch of fun! Sometimes!

Gallery Hop is pretty much the only time to catch all the art galleries in the Short North open at once, because many are appointment only or have very limited hours. This being the case, hundreds of people swarm the neighborhood the first Saturday of every month. You should dress for the weather, because you end up spending more time outside than you might think. Other neighborhood businesses stay open late to take advantage of the crowds. Put it all together and you have a prime shopping, art appreciation, and (especially) people watching experience. You’ll see why Gallery Hop has been a Columbus institution for 20 years.

The first Saturday of every month, Short North galleries and businesses stay open until 10, and the hordes come out to eat, drink, and make merry. You can usually find CD101 playing some tunes, and if you’re lucky, some random street performers making noise and adding to the festivities. Shopping in this district has gotten WAY better in the past few years, and it’s easier to deal with the heftier prices if you browse with a few drinks in ya. Lots of food and drink options for any budget, though anywhere you go will be PACKED, and parking is a bit of an issue. How are the arches doing?