On a typical summer evening, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see a tumbleweed roll through the empty streets of West Chelsea. But things looked quite a bit different on Wednesday night.

In an effort to lure fresh blood to New York’s art galleries, which have seen a demoralizing drop in foot traffic of late, the Art Dealers Association of America held its inaugural Chelsea Art Walk, for which around 30 galleries stayed open late.

The surprisingly low-tech strategy to draw crowds during the dog days of summer was reasonably successful. Armed with simple paper maps, clusters of visitors strolled the streets with plastic cups of wine in hand. (This is also a throwback: Once a reliable source of free booze, many gallery openings  have stopped offering liquid refreshments.) Read more