For the past 20 years, Railroad Square has best been known for the exciting and popular First Friday festival. This festival offers a lively, enjoyable experience with open galleries/shops, live music, and food. Railroad Square’s First Fridays have been recognized nationally by Forbes and Huffington Post and is Tallahassee’s most popular, longest-running monthly cultural event! As of Sept 2020, this staple Tallahassee event is being organized and hosted by ACERS (virtually for now). Tune in — and watch past productions — on Facebook or YouTube .

The Art Garden is Railroad Square’s event venue, with overflow capacity up to 3,000 people. This recently built amenity is the “town square” of the art district. The surrounding shops, greenspace, colorful murals, and central location make it a fantastic community gathering space.

Using this venue, ACERS will host events highlighting a variety of artistic mediums and cultural/community interests. The Art Garden will be available for other approved community uses as well.

Artists need both inspirational studio space to create and also well-trafficked gallery space to display their work to the public. Most artists can’t afford to have both. ACERS hopes to work with Railroad Square to repurpose the Breezeway Marketplace (right next to the new Hyatt Hotel) into an affordable space for artists to both create and sell their work, an incubator or co-working facility for artists much like the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA or Oolite Arts in Miami, FL