A new event aims to follow in the footsteps of Portland, Oregon, where a gallery hop takes place on the first Thursday of every month. Vancouver’s Rove is pulling together openings at seven venues around Main Street for one big event.

To participate in Rove, just show up tonight (May 1) at one of the venues and grab a map. If you collect stamps at four or more venues, you can bring your map to the ANZA Club, and be entered into the draw for a prize pack of goodies donated by each location.

According to Jamie Smith, co-organizer of Rove, the event arose from her desire to have more of a community show for her own art.

“I did my Confessions show at the Beaumont in September, and it was just me on my own trying to figure out what to do,” Smith says. “I wanted to do the show again, but I felt like I didn’t have a community with me.”

She connected with April Lacheur, an artist who was also interested in being part of such an event. They contacted some of the venues in the area, including Hot Art Wet City and Bird on a Wire Creations, and Smith organized her own one-night show at the ANZA club.

The venues happened to all be having openings at roughly the same time, so it was easy to convince their owners to make them part of Rove. Each show is distinctive; there is no common thread running through the event.

Smith hopes that Rove will have the same effect as the monthly gallery walks in Portland.

“It got so many people out looking at art rather than being scared of walking into a gallery,” she says of the Portland event.

Smith would also like to see people share their comments and interact through Twitter, using the hashtag #roveYVR.

“We’re hoping it becomes very community-based,” Smith says. “I would love to have people that maybe normally wouldn’t do something like this come out and see these different galleries and businesses that are working really hard to support Vancouver art."

If the event is successful, more Rove events could be in Vancouver’s future.

“I would love it to be a monthly thing,” says Smith, laughing, “but I can’t imagine doing that, because that would be a full time job.”

“But there’s been talk about maybe every second month or twice a year, but yeah, I would love to keep something like this going. I feel like this is Baby Rove and we’re trying to see how this is received.”

All of the venues will open from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The ANZA club, which is hosting the draw, will stay open until midnight.

For more information, and to print out a map, check out Jamie Smith’s website.