‘SoMa After Dark’ and ‘2nd Friday Art Night’ teamed up on Friday night to host an event that drew crowds from all over the Little Rock.
“Teamed up with 2FAN, the 'Second Friday Art Night,’ to expand it this direction, so we’re adding a stop for us and the new gallery in SoMa to make it to a bigger event,” Mac Murphy, Owner of M2 Gallery on South Main Street said.
Murphy said combining ‘SoMa After Dark’ and ‘2nd Friday Art Night’ not only brought both sides of 630 together, but offered a new experience for art collectors looking for something new.
“Let's everyone experience something new on this side of the interstate. We also bring kind of a new different style of art and different artists to the mix,” Murphy said.
Once people took the trolley ride to the galleries in SoMa, they were also greeted by all the diverse businesses on that side of the highway.
Nate Kennedy, the executive director of SoMa 501 says business owners made sure to offer special deals during ‘SoMa After Dark’ to draw the crowds in.
“SoMa After Dark’ is a special once-a-month event where you are going to find things that you don’t typically find in SoMa throughout the rest of the month,” Kennedy said.
Many businesses extended their hours for the monthly event.
“We see people that can’t get to the store perhaps during the day; people who just want to go out for a nice social evening,” Shelley Green, owner of the Green Corner Store said.
The organized night out started in April of 2019.
“We didn’t really have enough businesses to plan something like this just a few years ago, and now we do,” Green said.
Green said she hopes to see this tradition continue to grow, just like the SoMa district.
“We’re proud of our neighborhood. All the businesses cooperate and work together very well, and it attracts more businesses too that want to have an experience like this,” Green said.
If you missed Friday’s event, the next ‘SoMa After Dark’ will be on Friday August 2. However, the Green Corner Store will have activities all weekend long because the business is celebrating its 10th anniversary.