This year, the Third Thursday art walk will continue through the winter months for the first time.

Trisha Patton, executive director of the Downtown Joplin Alliance, describes the winter art walk as more “intimate,” with the participation of Joplin’s eight permanent full-time galleries.

The galleries will host indoor events and activities. Patton said they are mostly within walking distance of each other, but  people are more likely to drive to each location.

The eight galleries involved are Spiva Center for the Arts, Post Memorial Art Reference Library, Cleo’s Custom Framing, the Art Feeds downtown headquarters, Midwest Regional Ballet’s aerial ballet shows and open rehearsals, Local Color Art Gallery, Phoenix Fired Art, Jack Davis Image Makers Art and Jewelry and Nicholas K. Clark’s Art Gallery.

November was the first winter art walk, and Patton said each gallery had made an effort to offer something special, such as appetizers or drinks or live music.

“One of them was Vino and Van Gogh at Local Color Art Gallery, so they have a night where two of their professional artists come in and teach you how to do a Van Gogh painting,” she said.

Jack Davis and Phoenix Fired Art approached the Downtown Joplin Alliance last summer with a proposal to hold Third Thursday events year round. The other six galleries soon followed suit.

There have been six seasons of the art walk, and Patton said the idea to have it year round has been in discussion since the beginning. This year, the alliance is finally in a position to make it a reality.

“For most of those six seasons, we had to create art galleries because we only had such a small handful of permanent full-time art galleries,” she said. “So we felt like it’s just a lot of work, and we didn’t necessarily have enough artists on board during the holiday season.

“Just in the last two years we’ve had four art galleries and/or art based businesses open in the downtown area.”

Planning for the winter season art walks is still in the works, and the downtown Joplin alliance hopes to help the program grow by encouraging downtown restaurants that regularly display local art to hold monthly shows.

Patton is optimistic that the winter Third Thursday will continue to evolve. “The first Third Thursday that occurred was 50 people standing in Spiva Park and one art gallery that was open right next door,” she said. “So this is kind of a similar thing. People are used to Third Thursday, but it’s a totally different event, so we’re going to start small and grow it and see where it goes.”