Shops and Galleries Open Late for May Vista Nights

May 19, 2015

COLUMBIA, SC — The Congaree Vista Guild, a non-profit, membership-based organization made up of a wide variety of restaurant, shop, business and gallery owners, homeowners and museums in the Vista, announces its plans for May 2015’s Vista Nights. This event, which is free and open to the public and takes place on the third Thursday of each month, is Thursday, May 21, 5-8 p.m.

The Vista Guild organizes this event to offer later shopping hours at our most popular galleries and retailers on Thursday evenings, which are already bustling with diners and hotel guests in the neighborhood’s restaurants and bars.

May Vista Nights participating galleries include:

• Ellen Taylor Interiors, 1012 Gervais Street. Serving wine and showing new works by Blue Sky.
• City Art Gallery, 1224 Lincoln Street. Hosting an opening reception for “Rhythm, Balance and Space,” celebrating Eva Carter’s 50 years of creating iconic images on canvas.
• if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street, 7:30 p.m. Screening Raising Lazarus, a short film by Roni Nicole. The film, shot in Columbia, illustrates some indeterminate future epoch where people are buried behind the concrete walls of a desolate city, literally living as vegetative processors for computed information. Visited in a dream by an ancient woman, one man ignites an exodus with one simple, but heroic act, breaking down the walls holding humanity and restoring a life in the sun.
• Studio Cellar, 912 Lady Street. Offering 10 percent discount on painting class during Vista Nights. Instructors will walk participants through painting step-by-step. Register in advance and use coupon code “may14” for discount at studiocellar.com.
• Vista Studios/Gallery 80808, 808 Lady Street. Presenting USC Honors College student and BFA art studio graduate Tucker Prescot’s thesis project, “Figuratively Speaking.” It is an exploration of the relationships that exist between figures and landscapes. The resident artists of Vista Studios will compliment the show with figurative works in a variety of mediums.

“Thursday evenings are always alive in the Vista with diners packing our restaurants and tourists in our hotels,” said Richard Burts, president of the Congaree Vista Guild Board of Directors. “We’re excited that Vista Nights has become a regular monthly events, where many of our businesses will stay open beyond their regular business hours. Shoppers can wind their way through the Vista and stay to eat at one of our restaurants or attend a special event at one of our museums.”

Parking, as always, is available in the Vista’s parking garages at 820 Washington Street and at the corner of Senate and Pendleton Streets behind the Hilton hotel.

For more information about the Vista, please visit www.VistaColumbia.com or call (803) 269.5946. Follow the Vista Guild on Twitter, Instagram and on Facebook.