Albany Institute of History & Art (125 Washington Ave, Albany, NY 12210)
First Friday
Albany Institute of History & Art holds extended hours for the city of Albany's popular First Friday program! Enjoy free gallery admission to visit our current exhibitions: On the Road to Cragsmoor with Charles Courtney Curran, Americans Who Tell the Truth, and Portrait Pairings.
The May First Friday features music by DJ Sam and a pop-up by our friends at The Larkin Hi-Fi, who will be serving a selection of natural wines, local beers, and a cocktail (and mocktail) special. After the museum closes, First Friday continues at The Larkin Hi-Fi right around the corner!
In addition, Albany Institute is hosting a Floral Design Workshop led by Pepper Floral.
Floral Design Workshop
5:30–6:30PM
The workshop is $40 for AIHA members; $50 for non-members
Advanced registration is requested; spaces are limited
Join Pepper Floral for an immersive floral design workshop inspired by The Peris by Charles Courtney Curran. In this session, we’ll explore how to translate the soft luminosity and delicate contrasts of Curran’s work into floral form. Working with a serene palette of white roses, soft green foliage, and dark blue accents, participants will create their own arrangement that captures the painting’s ethereal mood—where light meets shadow and softness meets structure. The workshop will include guided techniques, and a focus on composition, color story, and movement.
Pepper Floral is a fine arts–inspired floral design studio specializing in event installations, hospitality florals, and seasonal compositions. Founded by designer Alli Dillenbeck, the studio merges fine art references with contemporary floral practices to create sculptural, color-driven arrangements With a decade-long background in wedding and event design, Dillenbeck draws from her lifelong engagement with the arts and designing events across New York and New England. After closing her former wedding planning studio in 2020, she shifted her creative focus entirely to florals—studying their form, gesture, and emotional resonance through the lens of fine art. Her work with Pepper Floral reimagines floral design as an expressive medium. Inspired by movements in painting and sculpture, each arrangement explores texture, movement, and palette, transforming space into an immersive, living composition.
Visit pepperfloral.com and follow @pepper_flora_ on Instagram.
