Gallery Hop Brings Artists Together in Hibbing

Now In Its 25th Year, Festival Gets Bigger Every Summer

HIBBING, Minn. – Businesses in Downtown Hibbing became art galleries for a day at the annual Gallery Hop.

The Hibbing Gallery Hop has been showcasing the work of local artists for twenty-five years, and every summer the celebration gets bigger and bigger.

“It’s kind of a festival of people,” says Joan Cotton, an artist showcasing her work. “There’s a lot of people on the range that are very artistic and we like to celebrate that and have some fun.”

The festival brings more than fifty artists together at eighteen businesses in Downtown Hibbing.

“A lot of the artists don’t know one another coming into these so it’s really important to see what other people do because everybody’s art is so different,” says Cotton.

It gives artists an opportunity to inspire each other and exhibit their creations to the community.

“It’s really a lot of fun getting to know them and seeing what other people are doing,” says Melanie Cicmil, another artist at the festival. “It’s almost like a second little family.”

The family accepts new members each year.

“People that have never done water colors before and they come to class and say ‘oh I can do this, I can learn how to do this’ and it creates more art,” says Cotton.

And for one day each summer, art takes over an iron mining community.

“The slogan for Hibbing is we’re ore and more and I think this illustrates that,” says Cicmil. “There’s a lot more to Hibbing and the Iron Range than the mines. That’s a big piece of it but there’s also a lot of other things going on that are also really neat and significant.”

Some of the art work is for sale at the Gallery Hop, and some artists bring their work for display only.