"The Long Journey Home" Game Night | The Games We Keep | An ALG Fall Social

The games we keep (NEW Date!)

Every home has one. A Mahjong set handed down from a grandmother. A pack of cards that has been on every road trip. The Rummikub box with the lid taped back together.

We rarely think of these games as treasures. They live at the back of a cupboard or in the drawer by the door. Then a cold evening comes, the box comes out, and everyone finds their way back to the same table.

A game holds so much more than its pieces. It holds the house rules nobody ever wrote down, and the voices of everyone who has played. The cousin who always cheated at cards. Your grandmother clicking her tiles into place while she told you stories. Every scuff on the box is an evening spent with people you love.

These are the things we carry from house to house without really thinking about it…

That is exactly what Christi Meril’s solo show "The Long Journey Home" is about. It is a show about the places we go and the things we choose to keep.

Christi works in just the same way. She picks up charcoal from old campfires and wonders who sat around them before her. She builds with redwood and paper that already lived a life before they reached her studio. Like a well-loved game, every piece in the show carries the people and places that came before it.

So for one evening, halfway through the show, we are bringing those games into the gallery and playing among the work.

Come early and walk the show

Doors open at 6pm. Play begins at 6:30pm, so come a little earlier and take your time with the show first. Look for the things Christi chose to keep, and you may find yourself thinking about your own.

Christi will be with us, so please say hello and ask her about her process. Every charcoal mark in the show comes from a single campfire at Ghost Ranch in Santa Fe, and she loves to talk about how the work was made.

Bring the game you keep

Bring along the game your family always reaches for. Mahjong, Catan, Rummikub, Monopoly, dominoes or a good old deck of cards. If it comes with a story, even better, because we would love to hear it. And if your family plays by its own house rules, bring those too.

Coming without a game? Not to worry. We will have spare games ready, so you can pull up a chair and join in.

Come together or come on your own

Tickets booked together will be seated together with four to six people, and we will seat you together at your own table, just like home.

Coming on your own? We will pair you up with other players. Some of the best games begin with strangers around a table, and you might leave with a new friend and a new favorite game.

A warm evening in

Sips and snacks are included, adult beverages too. The dress code is festive fall, so think knits and boots in the colors of the season. Come dressed for a cozy night in with the people you love, or the people you are about to meet.