Ray at Night, a gallery walk held the second Saturday of every month on Ray St. in North Park, is the largest monthly art event in San Diego, drawing upwards of 1,000 people every month. There are over 20 venues that display art — and not just art galleries — coffee shops, a wine shop, an art school and various other stores also turn their space into galleries for the evening.

Whether artists, art collectors, families, interior designers, college students or singles groups, many people see Ray at Night as a refreshing alternative to the bar scene and also as an opportunity to see what local artists have to offer.

Part of a loosely based coalition of Ray St. merchants that meet throughout the month, participating shops choose new artwork — independently of each other — to display every month, then collectively keep their doors open late the second Saturday of the month for people to browse or buy artworks, mingle, drink and snack on hors d’oeuvres. The wide variety of artwork on display includes paintings, sketches, sculptures, ceramics, blown glass, organic art and jewelry.

There is often additional entertainment at the event, everything from jazz, blues and cultural music to poetry readings and performances by dance groups. Performances are usually held in a parking lot adjacent to the Cabernet Wine Cellar, one of the Ray at Night participants. Since each space projects its own ambience, galleries may hire a saxophonist, harp player or other musical guest to play in their gallery as well.

“Even though our vehicle for [Ray at Night] is basically visual art, there are a lot of different mediums that involve art, whether it’s music or the written word or things like that,” said Brian Simpson of Sharp Gallery, another Ray at Night participant. “We try to have something [each month] but it’s not a street fair by any means. We just try to have a little bit for everybody there.”

Ray at Night started with a handful of businesses opening their galleries on Ray St. on September 11, 2001, the same day as the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings. “We figured that there was just not going to be a turnout that night, and it was actually really well done,” Simpson said. “People had kind of had enough of the news all day long and wanted to do something nice for the evening. It was a really good turnout.”

Since that first month, Ray at Night has grown considerably, drawing as many as 2,000 people in a single night. Ray at Night was also voted “Best Arts Night Out” by the Reader last year, and attendance has increased because of that publicity.

“We’re pulling more people down from North County, which we want,” said Simpson. “We want to have just a really nice event for people to come to. We do pull a lot of the gay and lesbian crowd as well. A lot, I’m sure is due to our location, but I think gay culture as a whole, we possibly have a little more appreciation for art.”

It goes without saying that Ray at Night increases popularity and profits for the galleries and stores along Ray St.

“We’re a business, after all, so we do have to sell art,” said Simpson. “We have a lot of really nice art, but we have a lot of affordable art as well.” In addition to displaying artists’ work ranging from paintings and hand-blown glass to ceramics and ironwork, Sharp also hosts theme shows regularly, such as figurative shows and a popular erotic show.

The collective sensibility the coalition of shop owners have formed with Ray at Night has created other opportunities for them as well. Simpson said that last year, when the National Ceramics Conference was held in San Diego, the galleries along Ray St. uniformly displayed ceramics from artists all over the world. There were 4,000 people in town for the conference and bus tours were led through different areas of San Diego, allowing for conference attendees to shop the local ceramics scene and for San Diego galleries to gain national exposure.

The popular event even influenced George Lofland, founder and director of the San Diego Art Department, to open his school in the neighborhood. “One of the reasons that I came here was because I thought that it would be a good event to participate in with the ideas and plans that I had for the space that I was creating,” Lofland said. “I was looking downtown and in different areas — Little Italy, by the ballpark, in different neighborhoods.… But what really drew me was when I came to a Ray at Night and saw the energy and the people and what was going on. It was just perfect for what I was planning in my head.”

Lofland has participated in Ray at Night every month since he opened the Art Department in the old post office building on Ray St. last July.

The Art Department features a different artist at each Ray at Night that is somehow affiliated with the school, usually a teacher, group of teachers or a school member. They do demonstrations of the various classes the school has to offer, such as the potter’s wheel, painting, jewelry making, scarf dying or printmaking. There is also a public participation activity each month. One month had Ray at Night patrons making a mosaic tile bench, while another had them painting the walls in the kiln room.

This month features three-dimensional, sculpture-style paintings by artist Matthew Alexis, which are made completely out of paint cast into molds and then reworked. Another featured artist, who is an Art Department teacher as well, has made a sculpture particularly for this month’s show, which, at 12 1?2 feet tall, is made of human hair, beeswax, resin, knitting, lead and wood.

“In addition to that, we have William Gambini’s constructions here, which are a form of sculpture that he makes out of wood, done in a bright reddish-orange color,” said Lofland. “William Gambini is one of our instructors here [and] is 85-years-old. He was Diego Rivera’s assistant and he also hung out with Pollack and Picasso and Hemingway as they were growing up experiencing their art works. William is also the curator of the show.”

With upwards of 1,000 people attending Ray at Night each month, it seems logical that the streets would be blocked off, but they are not. Lofland said that the idea has been discussed at Ray at Night merchant meetings, and they have decided against it. “We really don’t want to create a carnival-type atmosphere where there’s booths and that sort of thing,” he said. “It’s that versus the fine art and gallery atmosphere.”

Lofland said that a recent article written about Ray at Night misrepresented the event as a beer-chugging party night, much to the chagrin of Ray at Night merchants. “That is not what we’re trying to create here at all,” Lofland said. “We’re really trying to create a place for art and culture. We do serve wine and finger foods sometimes but we’re not trying to create a party-festival-carnival atmosphere. [The publication] went and interviewed one of the more avant-garde places that had a keg of beer and was kind of just a party — that’s okay, but we really don’t want that to be what we’re known for.”

Lofland, who advertises in the publication regularly, and other concerned merchants contacted the publication about the misrepresentation. According to Lofland, the publication was “very responsive and apologetic” and the matter was resolved.

The event is a steadily growing success and upcoming construction projects will beautify the area further, attracting more customers and keeping shopkeepers busy.

“We’re doing a lot of street improvements, and in January we’ll have nineteen trees going in on the block, new sidewalks and all kinds of different things,” Simpson said. “So we’re really involved with that.”

Because of its increasing popularity, Ray at Night merchants agreed to let Ray at Night expand to the surrounding neighborhood. Several galleries, cafes and music stores around the corner from Ray St. have started participating in the monthly event. “Even some of the restaurants are participating,” said Lofland. “We’re trying to get more of them to participate — just to put some art on their walls and create that culture within this area. It would make [the space] more comfortable as well.”

The next Ray at Night will be held Jan. 10 from 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight, on Ray St. between University Ave. and North Park Way. Admission is free.