Update

Michael Godfrey, Curator, died unexpectedly yesterday at his home in Charlotte. Read more by Mark Washburn at the Observer. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends.

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art announced last week that it is extending its opening hours til 9 pm on the first and third Fridays of each month. This will allow patrons of the Knight Theater the chance to visit the museum before a show and others headed to dinner or a night out a convenient time to check out the museum’s collection of mid-20th century modern art. As the summer neighborhood gallery crawls get into full swing, the museum’s later hours will allow folks the chance to swing by before hopping the train to South End or heading over to NoDa.

We stopped by around 8 pm this past Friday and found museum President John Boyer chatting with Curator, Michael Godfrey in the lobby. There was a decent-sized crowd taking advantage of the new late evening hours and as word spreads this will become a cool place to meet up, have a pre-evening glass of wine and of course, see their world-class collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture and decorative art.

As usual, there was an enthusiastic group of teens and other visitors gathered around the Firebird sculpture on the museum’s portico, cameras in hand. If you don’t already know, the Firebird has become the landmark in uptown. Don’t have a picture of yourself standing under it? You can head over anytime … never know who else you’ll meet there.

Other than these late evenings, the museum maintains its usual hours of operation. With visitation being steady and higher than expected, and if this Friday night was any indication, the staff can expect to stay on their toes throughout the summer.

For more information visit bechtler.org.

The Historic Westend Market kicked off two weekends ago at the corner of West Trade Street and Bruns Avenue. The “urban” market is open from 9am to 2pm every Saturday from now until November 28th and features local and regional artists and farmers as well as jewelry, clothing, food, homemade goods and livestock (yes, read on).

The market was started by neighborhood leaders to help revitalize the historic area just outside Uptown and promote local “homegrown” businesses. Vendors must apply to participate and if approved can set up a tent at no charge to sell their goods. There’s room for 74 vendors and more are being added every week.

The mix of vendors is as diverse as the crowd on opening day. Some highlights from today were artist Rose Hawley and her glass creations. Rose is an artist in residence at Art in the Dairy (http://www.artinthedairy.com), a working studio and classroom with guest instructors who specialize in glass, metal and clay. Rose came with her unique pieces made from marbles she (and assistant Alex) saw and melt together to form plates, trays and plaques.

There was also a lady who raises and sells fancy chickens as pets. The one I met had full of fluffy white down and a suit of slick gray feathers and was clearly not a fan of the heat.

Another must-not-miss is the mobile, air-conditioned book store called Bookin’ It!. Started by a local attorney, it’s chock full of new books for kids and adults.

Go, shop, bring your appetite and plenty of cash. Most of the vendors don’t take checks and the question repeated often today was “where’s the closest ATM?”