Mingle and Jingle on Main is this Thursday!

Mingle and Jingle is the retail kickoff for the holiday season in downtown Columbia. It takes place on December 2nd (the First Thursday of the month) and is designed to highlight the businesses in the downtown corridor. The festivities include live performances by the Capitol City Playboys, Isabelle's Gift, Columbia Alternacirque, DayClean, the Mingle and Jingle Jazz Band, the Dark Dolly (living statue) and special guest Lady Chablis. And, art will be the name of the game as there will be at least five different art shows going on inside businesses up and down the street.

Participating businesses include Mac's on Main, Villa Tronco, Hennessey's, S&S Art Supply, Tapp's Center Art Project, Sammie's Deli, Army Navy Store, The Nickelodeon, Columbia Museum of Art Store, Anastasia & Friends, Free Times, Capitol Places, White Mule, Frame of Mind, City Center City Partnership, Artist in the Arcade, Uptown, and the Whig.

This month Frame of Mind wraps up FOM Series 2010 and kicks off the holiday season at the same time. Bonnie Goldberg is the featured artist of the month and what a wrap up show it will be.

Anastasia & Friends: This month, the gallery will feature paintings, sculpture and mixed media by Paul Kaufmann, Thomas Crouch, Michael Krajewski and Anastasia Chernoff, video by Jason Stroud and Delirium will return with its legendary dancing on top of the bathrooms.

The Columbia Museum of Art's Museum Shop will be open and featuring artist Steve Harrell, a skilled wood turner. His pieces are in collections throughout the United States and Europe. What a wonderful opportunity to finish your Christmas shopping: all customers will enjoy a 10% discount on selected items. Museum members will receive an additional 10%. In addition, Columbia Museum of Art t-shirts will be on sale for $5.00.

S & S Art Supply - Michael Bolin will be exhibiting works including the new large scale series - Envisage. This is a series of large scale portraits of people as they would envision themselves - producing shared interpretations of the artist and his subjects. Awesome vegetarian fare will be provided by Cabo Fresh Taco.

Studios in the Arcade - The 9 artist studios that make up Studios in the Arcade will be open for all patrons to visit.