Masters Week isn't just about golf. Visitors and local residents will be able to listen to music and purchase handmade items during the Horses and Courses Art Walk in downtown Aiken from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Approximately 40 visual artists are scheduled to participate, and they will be selling jewelry, baskets, paintings, photographs and sculptures in The Alley and on the sidewalks of Laurens Street between Park Avenue and Barnwell Avenue.
The eight performing artists will be playing a variety of music, including classic rock, bluegrass and jazz.
By design, the number of artists is up from 2014.
"There were some dead areas along Laurens Street during Horses and Courses last year, so the goal this year was to grow the event so it would flow better," said Kim Coleman, the interim director of the City of Aiken Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department.
The department is one of Horses and Courses' four sponsors. The others are the City of Aiken Arts Commission, the Aiken Artist Guild and the Aiken Downtown Development Association.
"The event was created to give the visitors here in Aiken for Masters Week and the locals who stay here during Masters Week something to do," Coleman said.
In 2012 and 2013, the highlight was a parade featuring horses and decorated golf carts. There also was some art on display and for sale.
Last year, however, the parade wasn't held and art became the focus, which also is the case for Horses and Courses' fourth edition.
"We had some people who loved the parade, and some people who really didn't like it," Coleman said. "So the committee got together before last year's Horses and Courses, and somebody said, 'Hey, why don't we try this (an art walk)?' I think it (the art walk) is a much better fit for the Aiken community. We received a ton of compliments afterward from the downtown businesses and the people who live here."
The Horses and Courses Art Walk could get bigger in the future, according to Coleman.
"I could see us expanding it," she said.
"We still have room to grow it. We could go farther down The Alley and farther down the Hayne Avenue extension. Eventually, if we wanted to, we could use the Newberry Street Festival Center, and we could use Pendleton Street, depending on which direction we wanted to go."
Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since January 2013. A native of Concord, N.C., she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.