“I left on the Third Thursday show in August to do a 10,000-square-foot mural in Grand Rapids for ArtPrize – a blast, but another story,” says Mayosky. “I was gone for six months. Others like Becky Van Dyke, Ted Keylon, Mandy Magill, Adam Pursch and Ryan Sponslor took the reins then. Barney (Barnabas Helmy, creative director of FIRM, Inc.) asked us to move the shows to Andiamo’s and Norb’s by then had new owners. It was a perfect match.”

Starting at the downtown Café Andiamo! bar, restaurant and coffeehouse in October of 2010, Third Thursday became a viable venture, featuring several rooms of art on two levels with the number of artists presenting ranging from 50 to 60 on any given night. With several music acts scheduled and many more requesting to play, free snack food, plus meals and drinks for sale, the shows took on a circuslike atmosphere, not normally felt at your average gallery art exhibit. Past shows have included face painting, performance art, scavenger hunts, fashion shows, simultaneous music acts in different rooms and art created to music performance, all adding to the freewheeling atmosphere encouraged by the spirited artists.

Still conducted with no official group in charge to decide who could show or when they should show up or where they would display, the event underwent growing pains, as toes got stepped on and egos bruised in the process. Through passionate exchanges on social network sites and many reply-to-all emails discussing directions the group should go, all participants who wanted to could weigh in on issues facing the burgeoning project.

“The design and timing of the shows made it possible for lots of people to do a part. I really wanted a true anarchy – a loaded word, I know – but it is working. I am honored,” says Mayosky. “But it in no way happened overnight. The original artists who mattered most in the beginning were Mary Tumulty, Joe Kozak, Samantha K. Allen, and me. The first year was the hardest, but we made it through.”

During the time others stepped up to help with organizing while Mayosky was away in Michigan, a soft hierarchy formed within the intended anarchy. As agreements were reached about formally setting up the shows and basically how to manage the entire fledgling organization without destroying it, Third Thursdays marched on. Gently guided by the disparate idea of controlled chaos, artist collaborators worked hard at working together, intent on keeping intact the original concepts of freedom of expression and showing art without permission, all while keeping many diverse artists happy and content. The answer came through simply caring and believing in the good nature of the shows, along with an intense desire to sustain the founding principles of sharing art with artists and an audience.

“Energy – that’s the word that keeps coming up. People say it feels good at a show,” says Mandy Magill, currently the unofficial go-to person of Third Thursdays, along with Ryan Sponslor, who handles much of the promotion details. “It’s built on love and utter devotion. It’s like watching a growing child and we get to watch it grow every month.”

Ted Keylon, local artiste about town and Third Thursdays music organizer, webmaster and art presenter since early on, says, “We all help with the pieces, but Mandy’s the glue,” in explaining her role in keeping the ball rolling and the art coming.

She gives Keylon full credit for drawing her into the group and encouraging her to carefully and prudently organize and nurture the allimportant anarchy-like feel to the shows. A librarian by trade and the mother of two young children, when her library job was eliminated last year she became a full-time, stay-athome mom. While praising that work as important, Magill recognized a need in herself to work with the public and be a part of something else, fulfilling a heartfelt personal desire while being a parental role model through giving back and working within her community.