Lauren Farkas, a high school art teacher at L&N STEM Academy in Knoxville, Tennessee, began creating maps three years ago to help herself navigate the city's monthly First Friday gallery circuit. On the first Friday of each month, a dozen or more exhibitions open across galleries, studios, and temporary spaces throughout the city, an abundance that can overwhelm visitors unfamiliar with the art scene.
Farkas started by sketching a colored-pencil map for herself to plan which shows to visit and shared it on Instagram. Friends began referencing it, and the project expanded. She has since created maps using watercolor, tape, digital animation, embroidery, wood ash, gouache on vellum, and other materials, including one made entirely from locally harvested materials such as paper mulberry pulp and black walnut ink.
Kelsie Conley, assistant curator at the Knoxville Museum of Art, said the maps have reshaped how people experience the city. "They slow us down and change the way we experience the city," Conley said. "They still do the practical work of helping us move through the city, but the information becomes something you have to spend time with." She credited the maps with flattening hierarchies within Knoxville's art scene by treating major gallery exhibitions and smaller apartment-based shows as equally worthy of attention.
The maps have helped establish consistency around First Friday, which operates as an organic monthly tradition without central organization. Conley noted that the project has changed how attendees experience the event, while artist Josh Shorey used one of Farkas's maps to explain First Friday to a photographer who had recently relocated to Knoxville from Los Angeles.
