By TheArtBlog.org staff

On Friday March 2, theartblog.org launched its brand new First Friday Art Safaris which seek to expose audiences to the far-flung art around Philadelphia that they may otherwise not be aware of. With galleries and underground locales dotting the city, many of these spaces are difficult to access in one night. The chauffeured van tours, led by artblog founders Libby Rosof and Roberta Fallon, are a way for a group of art lovers to travel together and discover the city’s diverse artistic life.

The first tour was comprised of members from the Barnes Foundation’s Art Now! class and there are four tours in all. On the agenda were visits to Crane Arts, B-Square Gallery and the Vox Populi building. Additional dates include Saturday, April 14; Friday, May 4; and Friday, June 1. The Safaris are sold out, but there’s still a way to check out what’s going on!

All of the travels were recorded by Kim Paynter of WHYY’s Newsworks.org who put together a video of the journey around town. These videos are shared online so that everyone not on the tours can still glimpse these spaces. Hopefully the project encourages more people to venture out to the cutting edge locations aside from the big, safe art institutions and museums that already garner a fair amount of publicity.

Tour support comes from a prestigious Knight Arts Challenge award of $7,000, which artblog.org matched with another $7,000 from local donors, including support from the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corp. and private donors.