People weren’t fazed by the evening chill last week as they converged at the Downtown Gallery Crawl for the sake of art.

The event was sponsored by the Downtown Arts Alliance, a nonprofit organization of volunteers that promotes new art and artists.

According to their website, the galleries “provide a free and fun environment for the community and surrounding areas to interact with, observe and learn about fine art.”

Artist Caroline Youngblood was at the crawl presenting a solo exhibition of heirloom portraits.

Born and raised in Louisiana, Youngblood uses her work to show her strong connection with her southern roots.

Whether it be an old family photograph on a slide or a still from an uncovered home movie, Youngblood recreates them and turns them into works of art.

She shared that her art was inspired from her grandparents’ memorabilia.

Regular attendee Chelsey Goodwin enjoyed her time at the art crawl’s tenth anniversary last week.

“My favorite part of the crawl was being able to take time away from the busyness of life to spend time with my closest friends and enjoy the beautiful diversity of the art,” said Goodwin, a psychology senior.

She shared that although it was freezing, she and her friends managed to make it to all nine galleries.

While the majority of the galleries were in Monroe’s downtown area, a couple of galleries were also open across the Ouachita River, in West Monroe.

Golf carts were on standby to help visitors commute between the different galleries for free.

The furthest gallery to get to was the Garrett House. Run by ULM’s art professor Brooke Foy, the gallery witnessed many Warhawks enjoying their fellow peers’ works.

The School of Design of LA Tech University also had its graduate artists’ works on display at the Downtown Gallery.

The space was filled to the brim with attendees watching artists describe the thought process behind their works.

There are many different approaches to art, and all were on display at the crawl.

One building held an array of wire sculptures, while the other featured nothing but felt-pen drawings.

The Downtown Spring Art Festival, a type of art crawl, will be held on Mar. 24. As always, artworks will be on display along with food vendors, live music and fundraisers for different local organizations