The  Downtown Statesboro Development Authority  will be hosting its Downtown Date Night on West Main St. Friday, February 4  from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. This free F1RST Friday event is sure to provide a sweet evening for couples to enjoy.

Downtown Date Night provides an evening of shopping and strolling down West Main Street while enjoying food, music, and art.  The event features local shops and food vendors, food trucks and even a s’mores station where you can share sweet treats. DJ Randy, will be providing the music for First Friday.

“There are new businesses on West Main and the community needs to experience all of them. Some of them include Vino 1910, House of Luxe, Lucy’s on Main. There is also a beautiful mural that is almost complete on the wall of the Whitaker Black Box Theater ” said Allen Muldrew, Executive Director for the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority.

Couples also have a chance to stop by the Rosengart Gallery on  “Date Night” at 41 West Main Street to experience art by John Givens.

“John Givens was born into poverty and grew up in Portal, Ga. He spent his teen years in Philadelphia and found a way throughout his life to make ends meet. Not academically but artistically inclined, he found few opportunities to get a formal education in art or to develop a studio career but he was enormously talented and found a way. Like many self-taught artists, his work has a forthright innocence that candidly tells the tale. John returned to Bulloch County about a decade ago, continuing to paint both memories of his life here, narratives about current events and ghostly images of ancestors. We lost John in 2020 to Parkinson’s disease. He bequeathed his remaining art work to the Averitt Center for the Arts to be used as a catalyst to begin an art scholarship fund for underprivileged black children to take drawing, painting, ceramics and other art classes taught at the Averitt.  ” stated Rahn Hutcheson Director for the Averitt Center for the Arts.

Everyone is invited and donations to the John Givens Visual Art Scholarship Fund are appreciated. The exhibition will be on view through February 26th. thanks to the Statesboro Regional Art Association for sharing their gallery space.

West Main Street will be closing at 4:30 pm, however, many businesses will be staying open late as well as offering special promotions for the happy couples. This is a great way to familiarize yourself with our downtown shops and interact with the downtown culture.

First Fridays are possible by the support of the following sponsors: Tormenta FC, McKeithen’s True Value, CORE Credit Union, Morris Bank, Statesboro Properties, Zaxby’s, Georgia Power, McLendon Enterprises, East Georgia Center for Oral and Facial Surgery, Coca Cola, Statesboro Oral Surgery, Colony Bank, Party Harbor, Via Media and Southern Chiropractic & Wellness Center. 

  For more information, please contact the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority by calling us at (912)764-7227 or emailing us at mainstreet@statesborodowntown.com.