It’s First Thursday again tonight. This means that downtown art galleries will be staying open late and people will be flooding State Street on their monthly pilgrimage to check out new exhibits and shows.

Two highlights this evening will be a performance by Marnie Weber at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum. And the opening of the new SOON Collective show at Elsie’s Tavern.

For a full list of shows and special events check out the official First Thursday page.

In  addition, don’t forget that First Thursday is also the venue for the Art Helps fundraiser. This month Artamo, Casa Magazine and Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery are accepting canned meat (tuna, chicken, SPAM), which will be given to the Unity Shoppe to help local families in need. With each donation people will receive a button which can be used for 10% off of any purchase from the gallery. But that is not all! Ten percent of the proceeds from this purchase will also go to the Unity Shoppe.

It is a win-win situation. So help out the Unity Shoppe packing some canned meat with you on your gallery crawl tonight.

I’ll see you on the street, then join me for a pint at Elsie’s to check out the SOON Collective when the gallery’s close.