Siler City’s Third Friday Art Walk will be held from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm on Friday, May 21st in the downtown historic district.

Siler City is a charming small town in central North Carolina, 48 miles west of Raleigh, 20 miles east of Asheboro, 22 miles north of Sanford, and 32 miles south of Greensboro. It is a town of 8,500 people, settled in the 1750s and chartered in 1887. It became a major stop on the Greensboro to Sanford rail line in 1884. The Chatham Rabbit Market, the largest supplier of rabbits to the world, was located here.

Siler City’s Third Friday Art Walks are fascinating and festive events. The town has a thriving art scene, and the pieces shown can be negotiated for sale if you would rather display in your home and office works of your own choosing rather than settling for reproductions of famous pieces.

The North Carolina Arts Incubator is located in five buildings in the historic district. Thirteen artists make their works here, in media ranging from traditional oil and watercolor painting to pottery, glass, wood, fabric and fiber. All will be open for viewing and sales.

The Chatham County Camera Club will feature photographs made by Wilton Brown, and will also display a wide range of photographs of the sites and scenes of the town through its history.

The Raleigh Street Gallery will also be open, showcasing works of painting, pottery, jewelry, and slate. In addition, custom-made works such as bird houses and feeders, canes, clocks, purses, soaps and lotions, baskets, toys, scarves, oil lamps, hats and hair bows, furniture, pens, racks of all kinds, and pillows will be shown. It will host a Memorial Day celebration. World War II veteran Ed Theobold will alternate playing his trumpet and giving demonstrations of the lost art of Morse Code.

The Peggy A. Fullington (PAF) Gallery, located in the Arts Incubator, will display works of local artists. Next door, in The Courtyard, the band “Too Much Fun” will play, and you can dance to your heart’s content.

At Mina Beana’s Cafe, blues rock artist Rob Matthews will be performing, and here you can enjoy a relaxed dinner, snack, or cup of coffee from Mina’s special menu.

You can also shop for locally-grown produce and some baked goods during the Art Walk. A smaller version of the Siler City Farmers Market will be set up outdoors next to the Against His Will building.

Make a special effort to visit Pat Dawson’s Paperbacks Plus, at 208 E. Raleigh Street, right in the middle of the action, where Smallwander Club members enjoy a 15% discount. Pat was the first in Siler City, hopefully of many, to become a participating business member of the Club.

The full range of locally-owned businesses can be seen on the Siler City page of the Smallwander Club website.

See you in Siler City on the 21st.

Smallwander.com proudly announces the official start of the Smallwander Club. We’ve launched this new venture in order to secure significant discounts for Club members at small-town, locally owned inns, hotels, and B & B’s; restaurants, cafes, and bistros; museums; theaters; small wineries; craft breweries; special events and historic sites; golf courses, and at many excellent retail sellers. [A requirement for business membership in the Club is that the business must be locally owned, located in a small town, and a non-chain, non-franchise establishment.]

Individual membership in the Smallwander Club is currently offered at no charge. Simply sign up here. Then use the Club website to search for a charming small town to visit, and for interesting things to do in that small town. Say you wanted to visit Edenton, North Carolina, a beautiful small town of 5,000 people located next to the bay of Albemarle Sound. The Club website lists the various amenities the town offers. In the Accommodations category, notice that the PACK HOUSE INN is a participating business member of the Smallwander Club [it's listed in red capital letters, and thus immediately identifiable as a Smallwander Club participating business]. Rates at the inn range from $99 to $129. If you hover your mouse over the PACK HOUSE INN’s listing, you’ll see the discount offered to Smallwander Club members pop up. In this instance, the discount offered is 15%, so as a Smallwander Club member, you’ll save between $15 and $20 each night you stay. [And please note that the PACK HOUSE INN is one of the top B & B's in North Carolina!]

The Smallwander Club has just getting started, and we don’t yet have many participating business members in the Club. This will change quickly. Our initial efforts have been focused in Hillsborough, North Carolina, which is where our headquarters [such as it is] is located. If you view the Hillsborough page, you’ll see many participating business members that offer a variety of amenities. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll feature many many more participating businesses in a wider range of small towns, and your Smallwander Club membership will be even more valuable to you.

So if you haven’t yet received your Smallwander Club individual membership in the mail, please go to the website and order your free card. Signup is fast and easy. Your membership will be good throughout the year. Please remember, it costs nothing, so even if you don’t use it at all, you’ve lost nothing. And we will be grateful to you for  being part of the growth of the Club!